Morgan le Fay - A study of the complex character

This is a necklace I made recently for a challenge "Ladies of Camelot" held by the Australian Beading Forum. I chose to do Morgan le Fay because she was one of the most complex and fascinating characters in the Arthurian romances. I did a Google search and found some interesting articles, including a thesis written by Dax D Carver. It was suggested that the character originated from the Goddess Modron in Welsh mythology. Throughout the Middle Ages, her character was transformed from the Great Mother Goddess of the Celts to an enchantress to one of the most infamous characters in literature, as a result of demonizing of old pagan deities by medieval Christians. She was both a goddess and demon, fairy and human, heroin and villainess, healer and destroyer, feminine and masculine. She had been portrayed as a lustful malicious queen, an evil enchantress. However, behind her hatred, lust, jealousy and hideous appearance, I like to think that there was also love, nobility, admiration, and beauty. I wanted to make a piece that encompassed the different facets of her complex character, and showed both the beautiful and evil side, with a touch of Merlin's magic.

The necklace is a mixed media piece combining bronze clay, enamelling, wire wrapping and a little seedwork. I used bronze clay and moulds to make the gargoyles, assembled them into pendants, added patina, and set a Swarovski stone in the main pendant by wire wrapping. Made the two oval green cabs using silver foil and enamel on copper plates. I used mainly gold filled wire, which I then patinaed with liver of sulphur. One thing I have learnt is – it’s very difficult to add patina to gold filled wire. I had to use quite concentrated LOS and left them to soak for quite a while. As a result, my house stank!