IMPORTANT: This jewel is limited and we do not know if they'll be available again in the future. We recommend Express Shipping with signature required upon delivery to make sure 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 ~ bloodmilkjewels@gmail.com ~ after placing your order to confirm your ring size. We cannot begin creating your ring until your ring size is confirmed. 

Twin snakes cradle a hand cut onyx marquise gemstone. 

Made popular again by Queen Victoria by way of her own serpentine engagement ring gifted to her by Prince Albert in 1839- snake jewelry saw a rise in popularity amongst the Victorians. Considered to be a Romantic Period due to the famed romance between to the two royals, snakes took on the symbol of everlasting / eternal love ( & life ) when in the form of the Ouroboros ( see the Medusa Ouroboros band here ) as well as considered to be guardian spirits - akin to the proximity of Medusa here. 

Inspired by sacred devotion, these rings mark what devotion can be to us: we are devoted to the living, the dead, our dreams and our ideas. We can find devotion in spiritual callings, whatever that means to you, as well as to the natural world and places that bring us peace.

Sometimes we are devoted to dreams that dissipate and people who disappoint us, who break our hearts. Sometimes we are asked to put our devotion aside. We remain devoted to people even when they have left us, either exiting the relationship or the living world. We are devoted even when we gain nothing in return. We burn with the fire of devotion, and occasionally, it burns us back, threatening to consume us. It can forever mark us. It can leave scars. 

But also~ it builds us up. We can find reciprocal devotion, even when it is not asked for. We gain purpose in our devotion, fulfillment. We grow our devotion over time, tending to it as we would a garden. There is history, memory, knowledge, skill. A love that can be just ours, or one that is shared. A sense of belonging, peace.

These rings can be used as markers of devotion to wear close to the body- objects that can be imbued with spirit, that can become companions. These can be given meaning in many ways ~ romantic love - share them with lovers as markers of engagement or promise. Friendship. Distance between loves. Shared between family members, ~ bonds between people who care for one another.

They can also mark love for oneself. One of my earliest rings was conceived to act as a devotional ring for self-acceptance, committing to yourself despite the flaws that you’ve perhaps wrestled with your whole life. ~ To mark devotion to a dream or an achievement ~ or perhaps even the ending of a dream that you’ve had to slip into the river. 

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* :

- 19mm from top to bottom

- 14 mm at its wide

- Sits 7 mm off the finger

- Solid Sterling Silver  

- Hand oxidized to achieve our favorite shade of stormy gray and then highlighted to reveal the bright luminous silver beneath

- Set with one 7 x 14 mm Onyx Marquis cut gemstone

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 soothe 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***                  

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