Eytan Brandes Necklace Enhancers

This jade pendant features a crane, a Chinese symbol of peace and longevity. Here, the crane is posed under a tree next to a reclining deer, who gazes at the crane with friendly interest. This is a popular motif for conveying a prolonged life. The back of the pendant, appropriately, shows the back of the scene. We aren't sure how old...

Our favorite type of pearl in one of our favorite pendant designs. This is a gorgeous, drop-shaped Tahitian cultured pearl measuring 14mm wide (and over 18mm long), purchased from...

This fabulous and absolutely one-of-a-kind pendant is an assembled piece showcasing some sort of winged insect (a mayfly?) in 14 karat rose gold with bright ruby eyes and white gold wings set with six very old diamonds. Eytan set this glamorous pest on a faceted but entirely asymmetric piece of blue lace agate. For the bale, he used a gorgeous columnar hinged rose gold bale from an old pocket watch...

This one-of-a-kind pendant by Eytan Brandes features a freeform slice of gold, set with a diamond, over a freeform slice of goshenite. Goshenite is a variety of beryl -- basically aquamarine without color. We acquired a little pile of this stuff -- the palest of pale blue and oddly cut -- and were at a loss as to what to do with it until Eytan hit on the idea of setting one of them in a bezel with an oxidized (blackened) inside pan. We love the end result. The swirly pattern of the oxidization plus the faceting plus the minute coloration of the stone combine to give this humble gem a truly unique, shimmery look -- worthy, even, of a hearty "Gosh!" (if anyone actually said "gosh" anymore...) By contrast, the diamond, bezel-set to float in the opening of Eytan's 18 karat gold shard, involves absolutely no hanky-panky. It's an earth-mined, natural and untreated stone weighing 0.04 carats -- a small but high quality sparkler (Eytan rates it G-H color and VS2 clarity). The hand-wrought pulled wire bale is roughly oval-shaped and oversized, since Eytan envisioned his pendant would be paired with beads (which generally require a bigger bale than a chain), but removable. We think our choker-length strand of faceted but rough sapphire...

Eytan Brandes used the case from a very old (probably 1920 or thereabouts) ladies wristwatch to make this one-of-a-kind pendant. The case is 14 karat white gold with sharp engraving...

Story time! About ten years ago, one of Eytan Brandes' customers bought this enormous quartz at a gem show and asked Eytan to make her a diamond pendant to show it off. Eytan made the pendant, set the diamonds, added a fixed chain, then, well, he dropped the quartz. It didn't break, but it suffered an internal (not surface-reaching) fracture that is more or less visible depending on the angle of the pendant. You can see it in the photos for yourself. Eytan told the client, went back to the original gem dealer, and ordered up another enormous custom-cut quartz. Since the measurements of the new stone were different, he made an entirely new pendant for the new stone and the customer went away happy. Phew. That left Eytan with a big flawed quartz and a big gold pendant. Fast forward to 2022: after years of languishing in the back of the safe, Eytan decided that it would be a shame to deny these two outlandish baubles a chance. He made some changes, though. First, he dipped the pendant in rhodium, turning it white. Then he removed the chain, which oriented the pendant horizontally, and he added a new bale (fashioned from a 1950s white gold wedding band!) so that the pendant now hangs vertically. The 82 diamonds on the halo are all tiny but good quality (G-H color and VS clarity) natural, untreated earth-mined and full cut diamonds with a total weight of 0.40 carats. The four diamonds on the bale are of lower quality (probably more like J-K color and SI clarity), with an estimated total weight of about 0.04 carats. The quartz is a 150 carat...

This bold and graphic new pendant by Eytan Brandes is based on a design suggested by Eytan's brother Gidi, an artist living in Israel. Like a swirling yin and yang symbol, waves of ...