Description
An obsidian sphere sixteen millimetres across, engraved all around with the six-syllable Tibetan mantra, the hollows filled with gold. The text goes right around the ball and comes back to its starting point.
The engraved mantra is the six-syllable one, the most widespread in Tibetan Buddhism. The characters are genuine Tibetan and read in order as you turn the ball clockwise. What they mean belongs to a living religious tradition, and it is not for a French jeweller to interpret. What I can guarantee is that this is not an invented decoration.
The sphere wears differently from a plaque or a drop. It has no front face, so it never needs straightening: whatever its movement, there is always text in view. It is the only shape in the catalogue that presents the same thing from every angle, and that makes it a pendant with no position to maintain. The other pendants are here.
The reservation is the gold in the hollows. It is not solid gold poured into the engraving but a surface fill, and on a sphere that rolls against clothing it wears faster than on a flat surface. Count on two years before the most exposed syllables turn black again. The engraving itself stays: it is the fill that goes, not the line, and the text remains legible.
Crystal lore ties obsidian to grounding. The mantra, for its part, belongs to religious practice and not to crystal lore. None of that is proven, and no piece of jewellery heals anything. I have gathered separately what tradition attributes to obsidian, in the conditional.
- Genuine black obsidian, 16 mm sphere engraved all around.
- Six-syllable Tibetan mantra, hollows highlighted in gold, legible in order.
- No front face: the ball shows text from every angle.
- Adjustable braided brown cord, no metal clasp.
What to know before you wear it
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The specifications
- Stone
- Black obsidian, volcanic glass
- Shape
- Engraved sphere
- Diameter
- About 16 mm / 5/8 in
- Engraving
- Six-syllable Tibetan mantra, hollows highlighted in gold
- Setting
- None, stone drilled and knotted
- Cord
- Braided brown cord, adjustable length
- Gender
- Unisex
- Brand
- Bijoux Obsidienne
Engraving a sphere means engraving a surface that runs away
Engraving a sphere is harder than engraving a flat for a reason of geometry, not of material. On a curved surface the tool never attacks perpendicularly: it bites more on one side of the line than the other, and the character comes out distorted unless you keep the piece turning throughout the pass. A ball engraved on a fixed mount gives syllables squashed at the poles and stretched at the equator. It shows immediately once you know the flaw, and not at all when you do not.
This pendant exists because it is the catalogue’s entry piece for anyone who wants an engraved object. The mantra bracelet in the catalogue takes sixteen twelve-millimetre beads; here a single sphere carries the same text, for three times less. The other pendants are here and the obsidian guide explains the stone.
On a sphere the tool bites more on one side of the line. Without continuous rotation, the syllables squash at the poles.
Obsidian does not mind water, but the gold highlight in the hollows comes off with an abrasive cloth or a brush. A soft dry cloth is enough, never an ultrasonic bath. Cleaning an obsidian piece covers the rest.
