putting my life at risk for this here blog (review of the month)

Once I had received this necklace in the post, I proceeded to open it, note its beauty, and then put on my hiking boots and walk up to the field near my house. After taking multiple photographs on the way up, I then noticed a small gap at the side of the field, hidden only by brambles and nettles. Naturally, I pushed those aside and crawled through the small hobbit hole. Avoiding spear-like bough after spear-like bough, I found myself to be in what could only be described as the centre of a reasonably deep forest. Due to my (possibly irrationally dangerous) wanderlust, I began to venture further into the forest, hopelessly trying to note which direction I had previously turned in. The trees, all around me, were placed in an almost symmetrical pattern, meaning that every. single. direction. looked exactly the same. 

Noticing a tree with branches just dying to be photographed, I began to stray towards it so I could get a good shot with the ever falling sunset in the background of the necklace. Suddenly, the same unformentioned dog from earlier (which had raced towards me, teeth baring, jumping about and terrifying me until an owner comforted me by stating that "she gets a bit excitable" to which I snapped "YES I GATHERED") paced towards me once again, before recognising me and running back only to terrorise some other stranger. However, in my panic of possible imminent death, I decided to follow the path which the dog was now on, due to the fact that people were obviously there and the footway would lead me out. Long story short, the necklace is still somewhere deep within the forest, lost, as once I was distracted by the dog and followed it I quickly came across ripped barbed wire, a fleshless bone and thus ran the hell out of there - straight into, can you imagine, a fox. Honestly, the drama was euphoric.

Thank you to Caleb for sending me a beautiful necklace to review on this here blog, although essentially because of said necklace I did, in fact, almost die. Kind of. If you count an almost dog-attack and almost fox-attack. Which I do. And I hope you do too because I tried to word that as dramatically as possible so that you would be intrigued and want to carry on reading. Let me know if it worked.

Although I think that this necklace is stunning, I was initially despondent to find that the chalcanthite is in fact synthetic. I did originally believe this to be the case, due to the colouring being not quite as vibrant as its natural brothers, so I shouldn't have been surprised. However, after doing some more research I found that Caleb chose synthetic over natural because, to quote, "chalcanthite is a natural byproduct of copper mining, and is incredibly rare in it's natural state. I choose to use an ecofriendly synthetic mineral, rather than add to the excessive fracking taking place." Coincidentally, I recently attended a protest rally against the commercial overuse of fracking, and so, after careful indagation, I thoroughly agree with Caleb's decision to go artificial.

"I actually make my living as a woodworker with my main shop also being here on Etsy. I'm absolutely obsessed with learning how things work, and making them. It doesn't matter whether it's made out of stone, metal, wood, etc; I'm just in love with the process. I have a lot of excess metals, and failed projects around my shop. I've seen geode pendants here on etsy quite a bit, so one day I decided to try the electroplating process for myself. It actually turned out to be quite an enjoyable process once I got a hang of it, and I've been making them in my free time. I'd ultimately like to put much more time into this shop, but as it is this is just a small outlet for some of my creations. I do have high hopes for the future."

The necklace was sent all the way from Colorado (which is just one Salt Lake City away from Oregon State, my dream university), and so I'm surprised that it arrived as quickly as it did, and in pristine condition too. Also, I didn't have to pay any hidden postage fees, unlike the time I was sent a capo and *cough* left it as the office *cough*.

I would just like to note that although I only had this necklace in my possession for a very short amount of time, I fell completely in love with the blue and gold contrast. The synthetic chalcanthite is beautiful alone, but when in a vibrant gold casing it is (or, as the case may be, was) absolutely stunning. I am really disappointed that I never got the chance to wear it out and show it off, as it would have been the perfect statement piece of an outfit, but at the very least I got to take some photographs of it whilst visiting a beautiful scenic area within the countryside.

"I love creating things; whether it's made out of wood, metal, or I'm writing a song, I feel whole. I am obsessed. I'm a full time woodworker, and a father. I love my family, and wouldn't be where I am today without them. Each necklace is unique, and one of a kind. They are ready to ship when ordered.  If you have any questions, just ask, I'd be happy to answer them."

Prior to finding out that this necklace was made from synthetic materials, I did some research and was informed that "chalcanthite is an excellent throat chakra stone. It is said to help further desires through communication abilities. It is also said to help one stay in the now and enjoy life, as well as get rid of feelings of abandonment. Chalcanthite is reputed to eliminate delays of things in progress. It is also used metaphysically for insight, clairvoyance, and psychic attunement. It is said to enhance one's ability to read people and situation." But hey, maybe this synthetic necklace will work well abandoned in the forest and bring mystical powers to it, because that's how it works when reversed, right?*

Another point that I feel would be useful to note is that the chalcanthite, however contrived, is still a rather heavy centrepiece for a necklace. Of course it is understandable that the stone was rather weighty, as it had been encased in "electroplated, 14k gold, and then milled, tapped, and affixed with the eyelid screw", but nonetheless I thought that it was worth a mention. I for one tend to sometimes like necklaces that aren't small and dainty and are instead rather large and make a communiqué, and as the pendant didn't weigh my neck down I actually quite liked it. 

The above photograph was the last one taken with the necklace, which is annoying as the quality of this image isn't even very good. To be honest, if I hadn't decided to venture into the forest to get this shot then it would probably still be hanging on the mannequin hand in my bedroom rather than a branch, none the wiser. But, as I did take this photo, it is probably lost forever. I feel like irony is highly evident here, although I'm happier to believe that this was all one big coincidence for the greater good and that I'm not simply just one beautifully beautiful necklace down.

You can check out Caleb's products by clicking here and here.

*I pretty much just guessed that whole thing, someone please tell me if I was anywhere close?