IMPORTANT: This jewel is limited and we are unsure if they'll be available again in the future. We recommend Express Shipping with signature required upon delivery to best ensure it arrives safely in your hands. 

Please note : You must either leave your ring size in the notes section while going through the check out process or reach out to us via email ~ info@bloodmilkjewels.com ~ after placing your order to confirm your ring size. We cannot begin creating your ring until your ring size is confirmed.

Because these stones are limited, we are not able to accommodate any requests for specific stone preferences.

A lone honey bee, carefully crafted and cast eternal in sterling silver, sits on the finger at a slight angle as if it has just landed there to rest, carrying a single drip of 'honey' in the form of milky Mother of Pearl. This unusual pose is based on bee folklore and superstition: if a bee lands on one's hand it means good fortune is headed one's way. It is also known that to wear bee jewelry is to attract positivity and abundance. Wear this amuletic ring when in need of luck or a bit of sweetness.

Bees:

Historically, bees and their hive were an important part of the family. To “Tell the Bees” is considered an ancient practice, traced as far back as Hellenistic Greece, perhaps even earlier. Hives and bees were an important part of life as honey and beeswax were valuable goods - beeswax provided a clean burning material for candles to bring light into small dark places - an apt metaphor for lighting the way in dark times and dark spaces.

The oracle site at Delphi was said to have been created by bees; even the Pythia were referenced as 'bee oracles'. While much has been written about how the Pythia's trance-like states were induced, one possible theory links their prophecy to the consumption of 'mad honey.' Known in Turkey as deli bal where it was ( and is ) harvested, and meli chloron or 'green honey' in Ancient Greek times, it behaves as a psychoactive, due to bees feeding on native rhododendron plants. In small doses in can bring on feelings of euphoria, intoxication and hallucinations, in larger doses it causes a variety of unpleasant symptoms and in rare cases, death. The poison is in the dosage. 

The practice of Telling the Bees, involved all major life events, keeping them included as one would with any other close family member. They were told of marriages, births, & perhaps most well known, deaths. The hives were heaved up at the same time the coffin was, and they were also decorated with funerary crepes. Cakes were also fed to the bees after funerals and weddings. It was believed that if a hive was not told of these life events, they would leave the hive, or even die. I like to think people would whisper secrets to the hives they could tell no one else, making the bees secret keepers. In the vein of this idea, use this ring as a talisman for your secrets, whisper them to it and bring it 'alive' as a companion for secret keeping.  

*Details* :

- 19 mm wide 

- 9 mm from top to bottom  

- Sits 10 mm off of the finger

- Solid sterling silver

- Oxidized to achieve a stormy gray. Hand polished to reveal the luminous silver tones beneath. 

- Set with one 6 x 8 mm pear shaped Mother of Pearl cabochon

- Last two images show how the Mother of Pearl stone is not fixed in place, and moves with the hand.

Pearls

Have an ancient history of reverence as well as a long legacy of beauty. Pearls are formed when an external irritant, like a grain of sand, breaches the shell of an oyster or shelled mollusk. Once this irritant has gained entrance within the dark fleshy confines of the oyster, it goes to work protecting itself. If this irritant can’t be expelled, it begins to ‘bandage’ the grain, coating it with concentric rings of calcium carbonate, named ‘narce.’ Each layer that is built up forms the shape of the pearl, awash in a brilliant iridescence, a beauty born of a tiny trespass. Thusly, a pearl has at its center, the object of its creation, a foreign intruder.

I associate the pearl and its strange construction to so many things: the jellied caterpillar struggling within a chrysalis, its liquefied body form a new winged shape. An embedded star smoldering within the shell of our hearts. An ink dot, a pin prick, a moon in miniature. History, who has always loved and revered the pearl, writes that we once believed pearls were the result of lightning striking the shell and penetrating the inner skins of the oyster. A small beauty made in duress, a ‘stone’ of initiation. To possess a pearl means to own something that is hidden, sacred.

Lore has it that Cleopatra, to win a wager with Antony, dissolved a large, exquisite pearl in her drinking glass. She swallowed it in one sip. I wonder about her dreams that night.

These Mother of Pearl cabochons are hand cut and therefore may have very slight differences in size and may have small signs of the carver's hands along the edges. These are not fabricated by a machine, they are made by hand and therefore aren't uniformly perfect. The photographs accurately portray the quality of the cabochons and the cuts.

Please note they range slightly in color but these are light cream in color with a pearlescent flash. Some of the cabochons have a subtle iridescence which includes shades of pink, blue, and green when turned in the light.
These jewels are hand cut and therefore may have very slight differences in size and may have small signs of the carver's hands along the edges. These are not fabricated by a machine, they are made by hand and therefore aren't uniformly perfect. The photographs accurately portray the quality of the stones and the cuts. 

***IMPORTANT***  

This jewel is handmade to order, just for you, with care and focus. Please allow approximately 6 - 8 weeks for creation before shipping.  

Visit the Policy Page to make an educated and informed purchase HERE.

If you have further questions, we are always here to serve you in a kind and timely manner: via info@bloodmilkjewels.com