South Red Agate Flame Return Flame Pattern Pendant

The flame pattern is carved, not painted on. The fire starts at the lower edge of the pendant and rises, splitting into three tongues: the middle one tallest, the two flanking it lower, all closing into a circle at the top, and that circle is the meaning of the piece, a return to the origin. The lines are cut as grooves with a slight bevel along the edge, so the flames stand up when light comes in at an angle instead of lying flat as surface decoration. The tips are left with a little dry stroke that does not cut all the way down, which gives them movement.

South Red is not one colour. The trade sorts it into persimmon red, cherry red and icy floating, which describe differences in depth and translucency, and a single piece of rough can run light and dark. It is agate at bottom, reasonably hard, and what it fears is a knock and sudden shifts of temperature rather than wear. The ground here is on the deep side, and the flame pattern is cut into that dark, taking its depth from the shadow in the grooves; the denser the red, the less the fire shows. Where red and white meet on a piece like this, the carving has to follow the run of the colour, since cutting against it tends to chip.

Gold and silver refer to the fittings, not to the pendant itself. A gold clasp and chain are warm, flatter the red of the stone, and push the whole toward richness; silver is cool, holds the red down and looks cleaner. The hole at the top is small, so the clasp ring has to be fine to pass through. Judge the clasp on two points: whether the solder sits flat, and whether the spring opens and closes smoothly. Fail either and it will loosen within days, and the pendant will come off.

The four options are two decisions combined: pendant or necklace, gold or silver. With the pendant alone you choose your own cord, and South Red sits well on dark brown leather or black; a red cord is too much. With the necklace, chain and pendant arrive together and there is nothing to match. Gold with the necklace is the least trouble of the four, silver with the pendant the most flexible, and the choice comes down to habit. South Red is a heavy colour: silver makes it look lighter and gold makes it look weightier, which is a matter of taste.

Agate fears two things: a fall and high heat. Dropped from a table to the floor, the corners chip first; left beside a radiator or in a hot car, fine internal lines begin to show. Take it off for housework and for showering, since detergent and shower gel are unkind to a polished surface. When it is not being worn, bag it separately rather than storing it with metal. The edges of metal will scratch agate, and those scratches cannot be polished out.