This meaningful piece of jewellery was commissioned by a client who asked us to design a custom necklace for her little sisters 30th Birthday. The birthday girl is Scottish, now living in Portsmouth, married to a lovely Englishman from Portsmouth, with their two children. The brief was to design something symbolic integrating Scotland and England.
Immediately I found inspiration from the national flower emblems for Scotland & England, flowers traditionally hold so much history & meaning, making this the perfect theme to follow.
The rose was adopted as England’s flower emblem during the Civil War, also known as the War of Roses and Tudor Rose, which is a combination of the red and white roses of Lancaster and York, adopted as a badge by Henry VII.
The Thistle was adopted as the emblem of Scotland during the reign of Alexander III, folklore has it the army of King Haakon of Norway, intent on conquering the Scots, landing at night removing their boots to allow them to move quietly onto the sleeping clansman. They are said to have stood on the sharp thistle and shrieked out loud, awakening the Scots who then won the day. Unfortunately, there is no historical evidence for this, although I love a good story…
After making a few design suggestions, we designed and handmade this beautiful necklace, incorporating a Scottish thistle and English rose entwined, representing the joining of two hearts. The traditional rose was careful handmade using two tiny hand pierced layers of sliver, with miniature silver balls to decorate the center, while the thistle was formed by hand and given a diamond cut pattern using a hand saw, stone set with a pretty Amethyst Briolette.
As the demand for our bespoke service grows, it’s a honor to design and hand make a unique, one-off item of jewellery to represent two hearts from England & Scotland in love.
Customer Feedback: “100% recommended Lulu & Charles. From design to dispatch the service was flawless. Jayne kept in touch all the time with updates/pictures of my sisters custom necklace. She is absolutely over the moon with it and I’m a happy big sister. Thanks Jayne and Ashley xx”
Following multiple enquiries regarding this piece we have added this to our Language of Flowers Collection, to order yours today please click HERE