Inspired by Witches and Vampires: Mayfair Emerald Cameo

If you have read Blackwood Farm as well as the Lives of the Mayfair Witches novels, you'll no doubt be familiar with at least one piece of jewelry described.  The Mayfair emerald.  One does not have to read very far into The Witching Hour before they encounter the first description of this piece of jewelry.  

An antique pendant with a single rectangular Brazilian emerald, about the size of a thumbnail (on hands, not YouTube thumbnails) set in gold filigree on a gold chain.  As the novel progresses, we learn that it was Deborah Mayfair, the second Mayfair Witch, who acquired the necklace from a jeweler in 17th century Amsterdam.  Expensive even then, Deborah needed help from Lasher to acquire it.

This simple necklace, its setting engraved with Lasher's name, would become part of the Legacy, with each Designee inheriting it along with the growing Mayfair fortune.  It becomes the outward symbol of both the Designee of the Legacy and her attachment to Lasher.  Going forward a few years after the events of Taltos, the third and final novel in the Lives of the Mayfair Witches series, the First Street Mayfairs resurface in Blackwood Farm.

Rather than refocusing on the Mayfair emerald necklace, there is another type of jewelry that is a signature of a character in this novel.  Cameos.  Quinn Blackwood's great Aunt Queen adored unique cameos.  This is a familiar piece of jewelry for many, mostly seen as a brooch with an ivory or alabaster profile or image carved and mounted on a gemstone or other type of stone in settings of gold or silver.  Most of us are familiar with these cameos as profile carvings set on a coral-colored stone or, if not a genuine stone, something like Bake-Lite.

Aunt Queen, however, collected what are described as incredibly detailed and unique cameos.  Jewel encrusted, images carved in intricate detail mounted on them or carved right into the gemstones...  When Blackwood Farm was first published, I'd never seen cameo jewelry beyond what most people are familiar with.  To read the details of these stunning pieces of jewelry, though, I was really intrigued.

It took a long time, but I was finally able to find images of cameos similar in description to the ones in Blackwood Farm.  What I wanted to do was to put together an image overview, a sort of "display" of such incredible craftsmanship in jewelry and where pieces like them could be found.  Along the way, I found some really interesting cameo brooches that would otherwise look plain if not for one detail: a tiny pendant necklace around the neck of the profile.  The profile itself in alabaster or ivory or carved from a gemstone, but the tiny necklace being an actual gold chain, the pendant with a gemstone in a gold setting.  

Amethyst Cameo
Artist Unknown

For a long time, I dearly wished I could make these myself.  As digital fun and games became more accessible and I learned how to build 3D models using software, I thought at some point, I would try making 3D models of cameos.

That makes for a HUGE file of the model due to the sheer number of polygons alone.

As I looked for ways to render realistic images of my 3D models without making my system go SPLAT, that is actually when I stumbled across NightCafe.  What I mean by rendering is I export a 2D image of my 3D model and upload it to NightCafe to use its Sketch to Image feature.  Over time, I found that even NightCafe's prompts could add a necklace to an image that does align with the basic description of the Mayfair emerald necklace of the novels.  Many fans have created images over the years of what this necklace might look like, me included.  I have made at least 3 versions of it in 3D, myself.

One day, the generator happened to spit out a version of the Mayfair emerald necklace much closer in appearance to the descriptions of it in the Lives of the Mayfair Witches novels.  Since I don't go looking for whatever someone else might have managed to generate, the fact that the number of variations while staying within the basic description had grown told me somebody at some point had been giving the generator some tips.  

From this, I thought it would be interesting to get the generator to give me images of the necklace that cover the wide range of interpretations of it instead of images of what the Mayfair Witches themselves might have looked like in Anne Rice's mind as she described her characters.

Speaking of, to the right is the cameo I got NightCafe to make using its actual description from the novels.  Click on it, and it will take you to the Mayfair Vampire Chronicles page of the Parlor.  That is the page that is devoted to discussion of Mona Mayfair and Quinn Blackwood.  There is also a small gallery of images of some incredible cameos I've found over the years.  They are jaw droppers when it comes to details.

Quinn Blackwood Cameo
The Parlor on NightCafe

😖 Now, don't start kicking and screaming over the evils of AI.  Because let me tell you, I have no problem with a bit of fun with generators--to a point--but I REFUSE to allow a machine to do my talking for me.  I write my own text.  Always have, always will.  

It would be a total waste of a perfectly good bachelor's degree (I'm one of those disgusting people who has two) if I didn't write my own text.

No, my majors were NOT in IT or anything tech related.  Still, I managed to learn some basics so I could build 3D models with software.  And there is NOTHING even remotely "AI generated" about that!

I could say a lot more on the subject, but for now, start with this: I do not take kindly to attempts to mischaracterize my content.  If I use anything AI-related, I will say so.  If not, I will say so.  If you want to know more about how I made something, ASK.  Even YouTube has enough sense to do that, and that's probably some algorithm-related thing.  

Big Little Emeralds
The Parlor on NightCafe

Therefore, if a video-sharing platform/social media/search engine can ask questions and avoid just jumping to conclusions, so can you.  

Now, then.

Here is what I want to display.  The idea of a piece of cameo jewelry with a profile wearing the Mayfair emerald necklace.  The idea of combining the two pieces of jewelry to display both the various interpretations of the necklace and the impact of Anne Rice's work across multiple disciplines is a fascinating one.  

Dark Gothic Cameo Emerald
The Parlor on NightCafe 

Showing that influence in this particular way, meaning creations on NightCafe, actually does say a lot about the influence of Anne Rice's work upon the imaginations of fans.  Or this many versions of one necklace would not have been possible.

The NightCafe creations seen here are a basic example of what I'm going for.

The Doorway and the Thirteen on the Parlor website has a small gallery of images of antique Brazilian emerald jewelry.  It is a part of the section of the page that discusses the Mayfair emerald necklace specifically.  Even if you only see the images, have a look at the jewelry and a closer look at the emeralds...