IMPORTANT: This jewel is limited based on the small number of stones we were able to source 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 : This necklace will be created with an 18" bar link chain. If you desire a different chain length, it's important that you email us immediately after placing your order. 

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

The image of the double serpent guarding treasure or assisting a God, or twinned together has echoed across time and cultures as representing the harmony between opposing energies : the poison and the drug, life and death, the masculine and feminine archetypes within the binary, chaos and order and so on.

Here, our twin serpentine guardians have been reduced to their spines and skulls, having shed their viscera and their skins, leaving only their skeletal structures behind to protect a Black Mother of Pearl "Dark Moon". 

Inspired by the inherent promise of change and transformation within the disruption & despair of The Tower card, The Shedding Time is a talisman of emotional resilience, the strength of the spine, for times when everything feels as if our hearts are lost within the ruins of the Tower. 

Incredibly tactile, this jewel features a duality of the smooth surface of the Mother of Pearl cabochon in contrast to the highly textured life cast snake skeleton. Ideal for running your fingers over when you need a bit of companionship or to feel anchored in your body. 

 *Details* :

- 45 mm wide 

- 40 mm from top to bottom  

- Set with one 20 mm Black Mother of Pearl Cabochon

- Solid sterling silver: oxidized to achieve a stormy gray. Hand burnished to reveal the luminous silver tones beneath.  

- Seen on Miguel on a 18 inch chain

 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 forms 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.

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

***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