Butterfly Necklace

Transformation, mostly — the obvious reading, and the reason it gets bought after a divorce, a recovery or a move as often as for a birthday. It also carries an association with someone who has died, particularly a child. That second meaning is worth knowing before you gift one casually.

Scale decides it. A large enamelled butterfly reads young. A small gold outline under about 12mm doesn't — it registers as a shape before it registers as a butterfly, which is the version that works on an adult.

Yes, with one caution: the transformation meaning cuts both ways. For someone who's just come through something difficult it lands beautifully. For someone who hasn't, it can read as a comment. If in doubt, it's simply a nice pendant and most people take it that way.

16 or 18 inches. Butterfly pendants are wider than they are tall, so they need to sit where there's room — 18 puts it below the collarbone. At 14 a wide pendant crowds the throat.

Yes, but keep the second pendant narrow. A butterfly is one of the wider small pendants, so pairing it with another wide shape at a similar length looks crowded. A plain chain or a single letter below it works better.

Thin cut-out wings have a lot of edge, and edges are where plating thins first on any piece. Ours is 3.0 microns of gold over solid sterling silver against an industry standard of 0.2 — years rather than a season. Perfume and chlorine shorten it faster than wear does.