A Necklace of Raindrops

How wonderful would it be if you could stop the rain by clapping your hands? Or go out in it without getting wet?

I was one of those children who perpetually had their nose in a book, and one of my favourite authors was Joan Aiken. I’m pretty sure my first introduction to her work was the collection of short stories called “A Necklace of Raindrops”, with black and white illustrations by Jan Pieńkowski. 

It is in the title story that a little girl receives a necklace from the North Wind, which gives her these powers and more. I have always loved this story, with its fabulous combination of the magical and the real:

‘Who are you?’ Mr Jones said. ‘What are you doing in my holly tree?’

‘I got stuck in it, can’t you see? Help me out, or the storm will go on all night. I am the North Wind, and it is my job to blow the storm away.’

So Mr Jones helped the North Wind out of the holly tree. The North Wind’s hands were as cold as ice.

 As a thank you to Mr Jones, the North Wind becomes the godfather to Mr Jones’ new baby, Laura, and gives her a necklace:

From under his grey clock he pulled out a fine, fine silver chain. On the chain were three bright, shining drops.

The North Wind promises to visit Laura on her birthday every year to give her another raindrop for the necklace until she has ten drops, giving her great powers, including being able to go out in the rain without getting wet, swim the fastest river or deepest ocean safely, stop the rain by clapping her hands, and make it rain by blowing her nose. But of course, there is a catch - the North Wind tells Laura that she must never take the necklace off, or it will bring bad luck. And of course, because it's a story and there must be a problem for our heroine to overcome, she is indeed persuaded to take it off before she receives the tenth drop, and then has to fight to get it back before the North Wind visits on her birthday and realises what she has done...

It's a fabulous story (as are the rest in the collection) and I've always loved it - like many children I longed to be Laura, and have such a glamorous godfather. I too would have loved to be able to control the rain, and of course it sounds like such a beautiful necklace! So the story has always stayed with me, and although my original copy of the book went the way of many cheap paperbacks in a busy household, I bought myself another, and since I started making jewellery I have been determined to make my own necklace of raindrops. I've made several versions, but this latest is closest to the description in the book, using a fine sterling silver chain, with ten crystal quartz flat oval beads to represent the rain drops in the story. 

This necklace is for sale in my Morgan & Pink etsy shop (click on the photos to go direct to the necklace; if it's sold out, please use the link above to the shop, and use the contact option if you'd like to order one).

This blog post was originally written for the Morgan & Pink website, but now that I've moved my shop front to etsy, that website no longer exists, so I've taken the liberty of publishing it again here.