UK Tour Rock Souvenir Necklace

Last summer Sean and I took a trip to the UK for fun. (See: England, Scotland… Still need to edit Ireland. ;)) The trip to the UK was during the high point of my magpie rock collecting phase where I picked up rocks from the places I visit.

I turned all of the rocks I picked up from the UK into a large + elaborate necklace the likes of which is only seen around the necks of crazy people and folks with no shame. (You can decide which category I fall into? :))

Because I was picking up rocks from everywhere, many of the rocks in my necklace are basically gravel. (Like my rocks from Stonehenge are totally from the parking lot.) But I just wanted to have a meaningful souvenir from the trip that I could keep forever and I wouldn’t regret spending serious dollars/pounds/Euros.

As I was collecting these rocks from all over, I would scrip them and then collect them in labeled plastic bags. When I got back home to NYC, I took them out of the bag and then labeled them with masking tape so that I could arrange them into a necklace formation.

There are rocks from Hyde Park…

…Edinburgh…

… Arthur’s Seat also in Edinburgh…

…Blair Atholl in the Scottish highlands…

…Belfast, Northern Ireland… (I later learned that my great great grandfather came over to the US from Belfast.)

…Giant’s Causeway…

…Killarney on the Dingle Peninsula…

…Dublin… And many other places.

After I placed all of these rocks into a necklace formation, I cut a piece of leather to fit underneath and then glued the rocks to the leather. Then I stitched some hemp string on top to make the rocks even more secure.

Before I took all of the tape labels off, I embroidered labels of the places and stitched them to the back so I can always remember where the rocks came from. There are also two pieces of tartan ribbon at the ends of the necklace ties that I got in Scotland.

I also put a little locket on the back of the necklace. I want to put a photo inside someday when I get around to printing one.

I’ve only worn the necklace a few times so far since I finished it at Christmas, but it always reminds me all all the places we visited and picked up the rocks.

It’s definitely something I’ll keep forever…

…To remind me of our time across the pond. <3