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 into your hands. 

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

A stunning black mother of pearl cabochon in the shape of an inverted tear is set in a bed of hand detailed snakes, cast immortal in sterling silver. As a variation of our beloved "Medusa's Jewel" series, this pendant has a unique horizontal orientation, making it ideal to pair with other jewelry, while powerful enough to stand on its own. 

Grief has been at the heart of nearly every jewel we have made, weaving through themes of love, protection and self acceptance. This jewel was designed with talismanic intent to assist in sharing the burden of sorrow, grief and other intense feelings.  

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 became a protection talisman, 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 protective 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* :

- 78 mm from top to bottom

- 20 mm at its widest

- 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 13 x 18 mm Black Mother of Pearl pear cabochon

- Shown on Miguel on a 20 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 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.

Each Mother of Pearl is hand cut and therefore may have small signs of the carver's hands along the edges. They have not been fabricated by a machine, as they've been made by hand and therefore aren't uniformly perfect. The photographs accurately portray the quality of the stones.

***IMPORTANT***                  

Visit the Policy Page to make an educated and informed purchase HERE.

This necklace is handmade to order, just for you. Please allow approximately 6-8 weeks for creation before shipping.

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