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A handcrafted necklace featuring a monarch butterfly design with a Mexican sunflower and mushrooms, with a round sunstone in the center.
A close up photo of the monarch butterfly necklace shown with real greenery next to it and on a light tan piece of wood.
A close up photo of the clear dendritic quartz stone with inclusions that look like real plant material.
A close up of the two tiny silver mushrooms to the left of the monarch butterfly. You can also see the bright orange round sunstone.
The handmade sterling silver leaves with filigree decoration that are within the necklace chain.
The necklace is shown being worn by a woman with medium brown hair and a light purple shirt.
The clasp of the sterling silver necklace showing that the chain is adjustable.
A video showing the monarch butterfly necklace at all angles.

Monarch and her Mexican Sunflower Necklace

1 in stock

One last drink. She is almost home. It has been a journey longer than she ever anticipated, about 8 months to get here. How could she have guessed? She had never done it before. Yet everything in her body urged her to go.

The Most Extraordinary Journey on Wings

Only one generation of monarch butterflies in the entire world makes the migration to Mexico. Hers. The North American migratory monarch, Danaus plexippus plexippus, travels sometimes 3,000 miles from her summer home to just a handful of mountainsides in central Mexico, navigating by air currents, magnetic poles, weather patterns, and something within her antennae that scientists still do not fully understand. Nobody really knows how she does it. She had never done it before. She will never do it again. And yet she arrives.

This generation, the one that makes the journey, is also granted something extraordinary that no other generation receives. A longer life. While her children and grandchildren and great grandchildren will each live only 6 to 8 weeks, she lives for about 8 months. Long enough to fly south, rest through the winter, fly a little north to Texas in the spring, drink nectar, mate, lay her eggs on the undersides of milkweed leaves, and complete her remarkable life. No other monarch butterfly in the world does this. Only hers. Only this one generation.

This necklace captures the moment just before she reaches her destination. One last drink from a Mexican sunflower, surrounded by leaves and mushrooms, with the mountain forests of Mexico almost in sight.

The Necklace

At the heart of this pendant a monarch butterfly rests on a beautifully detailed multi layered Mexican sunflower, her wings spread open and catching the light. Her wings are made from both sterling silver and copper, each one hand formed and textured to capture that iconic monarch pattern. Surrounding her are hand carved sterling silver leaves etched from real leaves and a cluster of sterling silver mushrooms with all their wonderful textured detail. A circular sterling silver frame holds the whole scene together like a tiny window into a moment in the natural world.

Above the scene sits a round sunstone, warm and glowing orange and full of tiny sparkling inclusions that catch the light like the autumn sun that guides her migration south. And above that, suspended in the chain, is a dendritic quartz stone that looks as if live plants were dipped in stone and left there forever. Dark fern like inclusions branch through the clear quartz and the stone flashes rainbows in sunlight. It is one of the most beautiful stones I have ever set.

The hand fabricated sterling silver chain features two intricate filigree leaf links above the pendant, each one filled with delicate wire scrollwork. The chain is about 22 inches long and can be adjusted shorter by hooking the clasp at different points along the chain, allowing you to wear this necklace at exactly the right length for any outfit.

Every single element of this necklace was made from scratch entirely by hand. Nothing was cast. There is not another one like it anywhere in the world.

  • Pendant size: About 2.5 inches wide and 2 inches tall
  • Chain length: About 22 inches, adjustable shorter
  • Monarch wings: Sterling silver and copper, hand formed
  • Stones: Dendritic quartz and orange sunstone
  • Chain detail: Hand fabricated with two filigree leaf links
  • Material: Sterling silver and copper throughout

A Donation in Your Name

With the purchase of this necklace 10% of the profits will be donated to the Xerces Society, a nonprofit organization working to protect invertebrates and their habitats including monarch butterflies and the milkweed they depend on. The donation will be made in your name. If you would like to learn more about the Xerces Society and their work you can find them at xerces.org.

Buying this necklace is not just bringing something beautiful into your life. It is actively helping the monarchs continue their extraordinary journey.

One of a Kind

There is only one of this necklace in the world. When it finds its home it will never be made again exactly like this.

A Note from Tamara

I made this necklace because the monarch migration is one of the most humbling things I have ever learned about. A creature smaller than my hand navigating thousands of miles to a mountain it has never seen, guided by forces we still do not fully understand, living longer than any of its children will ever live just so that it can complete this one extraordinary journey. I wanted to make something worthy of that story. I hope this necklace finds someone who will tell it as often as it deserves to be told.

Shipping

Your monarch necklace is finished, packaged sweetly, and will be on its way to you within 3 to 5 business days.

Sale price$850.00
A handcrafted necklace featuring a monarch butterfly design with a Mexican sunflower and mushrooms, with a round sunstone in the center.
Monarch and her Mexican Sunflower Necklace Sale price$850.00