Golden Ilias Lalaounis chimera necklace.

Good morning, lovelies!

I was at a jewelry show recently and I encountered an interesting question: one of the vendors I was chatting with asked me how jewelry blogging has influenced my taste in jewelry. It was a fabulous question, and enjoyed thinking about my answer long after I’d gone back home.

The answer I gave was that certain elements of my taste have remained the same, but seeing a wide range of jewelry on a regular basis has piqued my hunger for the unusual. If a piece is beautiful, well-made, and unusual, it will delight me more than a piece that is just beautiful and well made.

This Ilias Lalaounis chimera necklace is the perfect example of what I’m talking about.

Kind of weird, but so, SO good, right?

It’s contemporary, which is awesome – I generally expect pieces this charismatic to be older. It’s gloriously worked 18k yellow gold, with the delicious textured chain leading to a rock crystal pendant featuring two creatures.

Look at those details! The rope-like embellishments on the necklace and pendant edge, the carefully worked creature heads, the wrestling beasts in the center of the rock crystal. The beasts holding the pendant in their mouths have diamond eyes. It’s glorious.

The listing calls this a “chimera” necklace, but I’m not exactly sure which of these is the chimera: the two heads at the ends of the necklace, suspending the pendant, or the two creatures wrestling on the rock crystal, but either way it’s amazing.

What do you think, dears? Do you love this as much as I do, or is it too strange to have wide appeal? If you are into it – how would you style it?

This fabulous golden Ilias Lalaounis chimera necklace is currently for sale by Oak Gem, via 1stdibs. All images and info are thanks to Oak Gem and 1stdibs.