Gaia Necklace

I took this to the coast in June assuming I would be careful with it and lasted about a day before I stopped bothering. It went into the ocean every morning, sat in salt water and sun, got sunscreen rubbed all over my neck and chest, then went into the pool in the evenings. Salt water got right into the joints between the segments and I just rinsed it under a tap and let it dry on me. Nothing corroded, nothing seized up, and the whole surface came back exactly as bright as before. Since then it has been in every shower I take, plus a summer of lake swims. For a piece with this many moving parts, the fact that water does absolutely nothing to it still amazes me.

A textured gold collar is exactly the kind of thing I expect to look tired by month two, because tarnish always starts in the low points of a pattern where you cannot polish it out. This has been on my neck almost daily since mid February. Hairspray every morning, perfume right on my throat, sunscreen through the whole summer, sweat from the gym, and a hot shower every night. The raised sections are still bright and, more importantly, the recesses between them are still gold rather than brown. The part that sits at the back of my neck under my hair, which gets the most sweat and the least air, has not darkened either. I have never cleaned it beyond rinsing and after five months it still looks like something far more expensive than it was.

A wide collar was the last thing I thought my skin would tolerate. I react to almost every metal and the more of it sits against me the faster it goes wrong, usually a red itchy band within a couple of hours. I bought this for a wedding in March expecting one evening of wear and a lot of antihistamine. It has instead become something I wear several times a week and my neck has never once reacted. No itching, no redness, no rough dry patch underneath, even after full days in summer heat when I am sweating under it. The inside of every segment is smooth with nothing sharp or seamed pressing into my skin. For anyone whose neck rebels at everything, this is worth the risk.

The necklace is absolutely beautiful and gets noticed everywhere. The packaging is completely unremarkable though, which is a shame for a piece this impressive.

Bending down, driving, reaching up in the kitchen, it never rotates or rides up. I have not had to straighten it once.

Sunscreen goes on my neck and chest daily all summer and it has not stained or dulled the gold once. Four months of that and it still gleams.