Crinoid Cube Brooch/Pendant

This one has been sitting on my desk for a while and is finally finished! Its another piece using a funky fossil crinoid cabochon which I purchased from Heart Of Stone Studio in the US.

Crinoids are lovely and graceful-looking sea creatures that resemble fern-like plants but are really animals. Commonly called sea lilies, they're Echinoderms, relatives of sea urchins and starfish, and they are one of Nature's success stories, having been around for 530 million years. Ancient Crinoids sported feathery arms sprouting from a stalk anchored on the ocean floor, while their modern descendants mostly don't have stalks. Their soft , filter-feeding bodies are supported by a framework calcium carbonate segments called ossicles, and it's the ossicles that you see in these fossils.

I set the fossil crinoid into Faux bone using glittery purple UV resin. The outer frame is needle felted merino wool in greeny/blue shades with a crochet surround of thin argentium sterling silver wire, amethyst cubes and tiny fine silver beads handcrafted by the Thai Karen Hills Tribes (purchased Fair Trade).

I found crocheting the wire quite tough on my fingers this time around so I must have been doing something wrong.

This piece can be worn as a brooch or pendant.

Size: about 5cm square (approx 2 inches)