Vintage Boho Sandra Pailet Handmade Porcelain Floral Necklace Signed 70s Hippie

Description

Vintage 1970s Sandra Pailet Handmade Fine Porcelain Floral Pendant Necklace Boho. Shipped with USPS Priority Mail Small Flat Rate Box.
This beautiful porcelain pendant was handmade and signed by American artist Sandra Pailet in the 1970s. The oval pendant is 2.25 inches wide and just over 1.5 inches high. It features handprinted flowers on the front overlapping the edges. The two most prominent flowers are a blue morning glory and a light red zinnia. It hangs from a light brown knotted double cord that is about 11 inches long on each side (so it would be a 22-inch necklace). There is some light crazing to the pendant. No chips, cracks or damage.
Sandra Pailet started her porcelain jewelry business in California in the early 1970s. By 1974 the former painter, who had a master of fine arts degree from Yale, had moved to New York City where she produced her pins, oval floral plaques like this one and more. (See excerpt from March 4, 1974 article by Ruth Robinson in the New York Times in photos.) Her pieces were sold at high-end stores including Bloomingdale's and Henri Bendel. According to a 1976 People magazine article (also in photos), she got her big break when the Estee Lauder firm commissioned her to make a necklace for its Runaway Roses cosmetics line advertisement. Once the ad hit, a buyer from Lord & Taylor complained, "We can't keep them in stock. We have to reorder them everyday."
"Porcelain jewelry fills the high fashion gap now that sterling silver is on the wane," Pailet explains in the People article.
She only made porcelain jewelry in the 1970, returning to painting portraits in the 1980s.