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

Dear reader,

When I was a little kid,  my father gifted me a children’s book, By the Light of the Silvery Moon. It wasn’t as popular as Where the Wild Things Are was at the time, but it has a similar theme; a young child gets in trouble with her parents and escapes under the hedge outside her house into another world. Eventually she finds her way back home, to where she belongs, but she's forever changed. 

Lately I’ve been thinking about these stories and how there might not be a way back ‘home’ for some of us, those who have always felt like outsiders, slightly out of step with the frantic pace of the world and its horrors, more content to live on the edge of things, in our other worlds. Of course there is a melancholy to this; the possibility of being misunderstood, questioned, or even threatened in these increasingly intense times. Our homes are the ones we build ourselves, we choose our family, or exist in more solitary situations. 

This ring, featuring a two headed snake ( a personal symbol for me of "the other", the outsider ) nestles its two heads together above the end of it's tail. Tiny and tactile tears, reminiscent of our grief moths and grief snakes, are featured on either side of the ring for rubbing / touching in times of anxiety or meditation. 

Much like one of my oldest ring designs, The Belonging to the Darkness ring, this is a ring of laying claim to yourself, while also being designed to exist as a ceremonial band. Comfortable on the finger, it can easily be worn daily and features a jeweled Mother of Pearl tear cabochon.

Details:

- Solid Sterling Silver 

- Sits approximately 6.5mm off of the finger 

- Oxidized to achieve our signature shade of stormy gray and then hand finished to reveal the shining silver highlights underneath

- 9 x 13mm Mother of Pearl Cabochon

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 pearls are hand shaped/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. Please note they range in color but traditionally, are light cream in color with a pearlescent flash. Some mother of pearls have a subtle iridescence which includes shades of pink, blue, and green when turned in the light.

***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