Vasopressin Pendant

“The pendant was a huge hit with the recipient and others… Thanks again for doing such a great job!’ William E. Armstrong, Ph.D.”

Customer’s Requirements

My customer was looking for a very specific piece of jewelry. As the head of a department he was looking for a special piece to give as a retirement gift to recognize the great achievements of a person who had dedicated her working life to researching vasopressin. He wanted a pendant in the shape of the vasopressin molecule in the style of my oxytocin molecule pendant he had found.

Designs

The vasopressin molecule is quite complex compared to some of my other designs and my first step was to take the shape of the molecule and work out a shape I could work with – and was a true representation of the molecule.

I started by looking at the chemical structure for vasopressin – C46H45N13O12S2 (phew – big task ahead!)

Then I got some images like these – because I’m a visual person at the end of the day. I use the numbers above to check everything is looking right at the end.

To start the design I worked on the computer to combine the two images above – I wanted to chow each atom as a sphere but not to be so dense as the 3D image above.

After many hours of checking and creating I ended up with this –

After some discussion with my customer – we decided that an engraving was going to really make the piece special. So I suggested we place the molecule on top of an oval shaped back – giving plenty of space to engrave a message at the back.