Thursday, September 15, 2011

Double Happiness

The Chinese character for "double happiness" (literally "joy joy") looks like two people holding hands.

The people are wearing long robes or dresses and TV antennae on their heads. This is how I describe most Chinese characters that I recognize:
1) xue - "study": A student standing on one leg with a headband and three crazy tufts of hair (学)
2) cha - "tea": A house with a cross and fireplace inside and leaves on top of the roof (茶)
3) zhong - "middle": A rectangle sliced down the middle (中)
4) guo - "country": A drawing or painting of roads like a map (国)
5) - "female": A curvaceous person running (女)
6) nan - "male": A person with a big, quartered head and only one arm (男)
7) mei - "beautiful": A caterpillar (美)
This system is probably part of the reason why my knowledge of Chinese writing and ability to learn new characters are quite limited.

At any rate, I bought a "double happiness" pendant a while back, and I have been trying to figure out how to attach it to a heavy chain or beaded necklace without looking weird, and without having to attach it permanently. In this design, the pendant is completely removable.


The necklace is made of three connected strands, which are embellished all the way around, so that the pendant can be removed and the clasp placed at the back of the neck for a plain beaded look. (click to enlarge)


-吴碧芙

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Did you assemble the necklace? It's very pretty!! Matka

Anonymous said...

It is funny the way thoose characters look. AGMinNJ