The meaning of a special necklace

This is a birthday-present bracelet I made for my mother. We had kept planning to meet up so that I could give it to her, but we never quite managed it for one reason and another, so eventually it turned into part of her Christmas present.

It has amethyst chips, small crystals and pearls (both of which were a present to me from my youngest sister) and a silver-plated clasp from Viking Loom.

This bracelet needed to be symmetrical, to balance the pleasing "organic" feel of the irregular amethyst chips, and because my mother likes classic designs. And it has pearls, of course: as a child, I always used to know when she was going out in the evening because she would be wearing her favourite pearl necklace. So whenever I saw her wearing her pearls, I would be really happy and excited for her. There may also have been a selfish motive for this excitement, too: our beloved babysitter, besides her fondness for obscure popular songs from the 1940s, was a bit of a card-sharp. She used to play whist with me and my sisters for Cadbury's Fudge bars, which she used to keep hidden in her handbag until my parents had gone out. Sometimes she even let us win. It was all marvellous fun.