Large Inlaid Earrings by Antonio Pacheco

Inlaid on Melo Shell with Gold-Lip MOP Shell and jet. They are 3 inches long with the ear wire and 1 inch wide at the widest point.

These earrings are long, flared shapes, narrow at the ear wire and widest along the bottom edge. The inlay is laid on melo shell in clean straight lines. A mottled blue-green stone with brown and gold matrix covers the top of each earring. Below it a band of black jet runs in from the outer edge partway across, and a second black band drops from its end to the bottom edge; the corner under the first band is filled with panels of gold-lip mother-of-pearl shell in soft pink, while the blue-green stone continues down the other side. Left and right mirror each other. Large but flat and smooth, they hang on French hooks and frame the face well with short hair or an open collar.

Antonio Pacheco made these. Another pair of his earrings in the shop is inlaid on melo shell as well, with turquoise, spiny oyster shell and mother-of-pearl shell, so the pale shell base runs through both of his pieces here.