IMPORTANT: Please either leave your ring size in the notes section during check out or reach out to us via email ~ bloodmilkjewels@gmail.com ~ after placing your order to confirm your ring size. We cannot begin creating your ring until your ring size is confirmed. 

This ring is limited based on the small quantity of stones we have in the studio and we do not know if they'll be available again in the future.

Inspired by Art Nouveau designs, a nest of snakes as lovers, as guardians, as muses, as companions in grief, twine around a long hand cut baguette. Fang prongs give the illusion of the stone being held in the maw of a snake's mouth, for safe keeping. 

At the time of my writing this, my kingsnake is in her shed time. She’s curled up in one of her favorite hiding places, and I can still see enough of her to know she’s alive, just undergoing a transformation as ancient as her species. This process is called Ecdysis ~ & slows her activity level as the fluids preparing her body for the physical prcoess pf shedding is building up along her scales, causing her vision to be impaired ~ her inky jet black eyes are currently bluish and milky. She is nearly blind, and reminds me of a tiny seer, curled up in the dreaming, receiving messages before her old self is purged.

During this shed time, her instinct is to feel vulnerable, which is why she hides herself away. I can relate to this. Over and over again, life rinses/strips/purges us of ourselves. The world's horrors run concurrently with personal tragedies and struggles. We must transform to adapt. I mourn my past selves as I also lay pathways for my future selves. It's hard to live in the skin of my present self. I always feel as if I'm picking at the skins of me, always vigilant for the unfurling. Always craving a self that feels safe, protected, 'good', at peace in any way, for any moment. This is all the shedding time, and a time when we should feel protected. 

I’ve been thinking of all of this in proximity to Medusa. The vulnerability of 'blindness' vs. the sacred protection of her killing gaze. The magic protection her visage carried ~ known as apotropaic magic ~ comes from the Greek, meaning ‘to avert evil’. Her eyes, her serpentine hair, thought beastly and ugly, was also believed to protect, to dispel intruders, evil spirits, etc. Those who felt vulnerable in their homes used her to feel safe. I've been thinking on all of this lately ~all that Medusa means to me, how much her origin stories shifts in different tellings like the crystalline underbelly of a snake in sunlight. I’ve been wearing layers of snakes, as I whisper to the snake who lives with me as she’s lost in whatever snakes dream of, hoping she feels safe~ as I hardly ever do, but as it's how I always hope to feel.

It’s always been my intention to tether all our jewels to the history of jewelry as protection, as beautiful & strange objects, as well as inviting their new wearers to imbue them with lives of their own, as guardians, as lucky charms, as guiding lights, as companions in grief. As these are what they are to me, as they ever have been.

Medusa:

Ancient Medusa lived a solitary, lonely life in a subterranean cave. Her ‘otherness’ was the nest of snakes atop her head: in earlier iterations, she was monstrously grotesque, but as time passed her features gave way to a stunning beauty beneath the hands of the artists who reimagined her.

This re-visioning marked her as one of the first ‘Femme Fatales’ of the cultural consciousness – a creature possessing the beauty of a woman and all the power that physical beauty bestows (seduction, sexual prowess) but also terrifying in her deeper powers of death. She embodies the tension between beauty and terror: one look from Medusa turned anything living into stone, though no women were recorded in Myth to have befallen this fate.

Separated from the body, the head of Medusa took on apotropaic qualities, appearing at the entryway of structures and homes to ward off evil and trespassers. In this way, the head of Medusa took on a protectionary quality, frightening away energies and people intent on harm, contradicting the murderous qualities she possessed when fully embodied. Beheaded by Perseus as a trophy, even her blood held potent magical qualities: Pegasus was born from her severed neck and coral is said to be the hardened blood of the Medusa. Set in fine metal, coral also became apotropaic, often worn on the necks of children that extended past ancient times.

Akin to the lightning bolt of destruction in The Tower, Medusa embodies this energy with her death gaze. Wearing these talismans brings this duality of nature to their wearer: her head as a symbol, became a protectionary talisman, while in life, she was a force of destruction; horror and death. The energy of both beauty and terror exists within us, much as the snake has the power of its deadly venom as well as the power to heal.  Beauty and Terror. Life and Death.

*Details*:

- 40 mm tall 

- 24 mm wide

- sits 13 mm off the finger

- Solid sterling silver, oxidized to our favorite shade of gloomy grey, and hand finished to reveal the highlights beneath

- Set with a  16 x 32 mm emerald cut onyx stone

Onyx:

Onyx is best known for being a natural stone that acts as a kind of 'psychic armor' against the negativity of others. It is also used to sooth grief and heartbreak. It is a wonderful grounding stone and a stone of self mastery, enabling its wearers to have mental and spiritual focus.

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 bloodmilkjewels@gmail.com