Hammered wire pachamama pendant

As I mentioned in my post about my Nazca monkey stamp, the spiral is a symbol found often in Peruvian culture. It's associated with Pachamama, a goddess revered by the local people, also known as Mother Earth. I saw lots of pieces of inlaid silver jewellery in the markets and shops with the Pachamama symbol on them.

On my last day in Peru, a couple in my tour group treated me to dinner (thank you Sue and Derrick!), so thanks to them I had some money left over to spend at the airport! I bought a red t-shirt with the word Peru on it, in which the P is in the form of a spiral representing Pachamama.

I'd been thinking about making some jewellery with hammered wire, and this seemed like an easy shape to work with.

(If you're wondering why my wire was so twisted to start with, it's kind of a funny story - I was getting a quote for getting my porch replaced, and the man who came to my house dropped his car keys down the drain in the street! My dad (who was helping me with some gardening), helped him to get them out with the aid of a tree branch and a hook fashioned from my wire!)

This was a really simple piece of jewellery to make:

1. Bend the wire to the required shape

2. Hammer it flat - I used a large hammer and an anvil. File the ends if they are rough.

3. Hang from a piece of cord

(I could have hung it the other way up, and it would have looked like a letter E, which would have been pretty cool too!)