IMPORTANT: This listing is for a One of a Kind jewel that cannot be replaced. We recommend Express Shipping with signature required upon delivery to make sure it arrives safely into your hands.

This necklace is Ready To Ship and will leave the studio in 3 - 5 business days. 

PLEASE NOTE: This necklace will be created with an 18" bar link chain. If you desire a different chain length you must reach out to us immediately after placing your order for a custom quote on the additional length.

An oval black star cabochon is set into a frame composed of life cast bat bones. Known to be 'the crying stone' this gemstone appears to be deep black but flashes with a unique 'star' asterism in the light. 

Pythia was the name given to the high priestess at the Oracle of Delphi; always a woman, who would be possessed by the God Apollo to directly receive his enigmatic prophecies, as she inhabited a dream-like trance. When she was consulted, she was thought to have sat upon the three legged tripod of Apollo deep within the subterranean levels of the site of Delphi, which was considered to be the center or ‘navel’ of the world and the site where Apollo slayed Python, son of Gaia, a serpentine/dragon-like monster. It is from the rotting corpse of Python beneath the temple, that Pythia gets her name. Much like modern divinatory requests, it seems the Pythia was consulted for ubiquitous queries such as ‘whom should I marry?” to more potentially history changing questions from rulers about to go to war. In every instance, the Pythia’s divinations were considered to be coming directly from Apollo and therefore unimpeachable.

Bats:

Bats and their cast wing and leg bones have long been a component I’ve used in my visual library as a way of creating a personal visual language. As nocturnal creatures, I feel a kinship with their natural predilection for the night time hours, but I’m also interested in how they use sonar to ‘see’, how as a metaphor bats as liminal creatures also remind us to look closer with our other senses, a way of ‘seeing the unseen.’ It’s my hope and intention that pairing them with other chthonic imagery and myth further adds to the visual meaning I’m aiming for, creating a collage of personal ideas while also tethering these physical jeweled objects to the spirit of the bat ( and other natural objects in the case of other jewels in my collection ) and to the spirit of the myths I’m invoking.

*Details* :

- 38 mm from top to bottom

- 22 mm wide

- Solid Sterling Silver  

- Both pendant and chain are hand oxidized to achieve our favorite shade of stormy gray and then highlighted to reveal the bright luminous silver beneath

- Set with one 17 x 23 mm oval Black Moonstone Sunstone

This jewel is hand cut and therefore may have small signs of the carver's hands along the edges. This has not been fabricated by a machine, it has been made by hand and therefore isn't uniformly perfect. The photographs accurately portray the quality of the stone. 

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