IMPORTANT: This strand is limited and we do not know if it will be available again in the future. We recommend Express Shipping with signature required upon delivery to make sure it arrives safely into your hands. 

This simple design, with alternating luminous Mother of Pearl "rosary" beads and sterling silver hollow "pearls" evokes our similarly petite Morgana design. Made to compliment other strands / necklaces, this ritual strand has a slim profile perfect for layering. 

Named for the various incarnations of the Virgin Mary, this "rosary" strand was designed to compliment practices of meditation, prayer and other moments of concentrated thought. Slide each bead through your fingers to mark time and reveries. In a nod to Catholic rosary beads featuring Mother of Pearl, these beads each glint with a tiny white flash and have an elegant, rice like shape. 

The long tradition of using Mother of Pearl in rosaries beginning in the Medieval period, is due in part to its smooth surface as well as its resilience of body; these beads are hard yet lightweight and are able to withstand the repetitive nature of fingers moving over them during daily prayer. They also carry a deeper meaning: since Mother of Pearl is iridescent and catches the light, they are considered helpful in navigating the darkness: sadness, grief, frustration ....

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 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.

Please keep in mind that these beads are ‘sea made’ and then each one is hand cut and hand formed. You will see the sea's inclusions inside and outside some of these beads. Nothing is imperfect to me. I see evidence of a jeweler’s or a stone cutter’s hand and I think of Rodin, and how his sculptures included the evidence of his hands - from a hundred plus years ago - and how that connects me and my team, to this lineage of hand-making, in a time when machinated ‘perfect’ work is becoming more and more normalized. I am trying to resist this idea of ‘perfection’, and I implore the same of you. These are all hand made, and earth made beautiful objects, so inherently, by today’s standards, they are ‘imperfect’ - because humans had their hands, and more importantly, their hearts on them.

The photographs accurately portray the quality of the beads.

This strand measures approximately 32 inches long from end to end.

At its closure is our is our smallest protective Eye clasp, cast in sterling silver, oxidized to our favorite gloomy grey and finished to highlight the shining silver beneath. This clasp is tactile in nature making it easily held between the tips of your fingers and rubbed for comfort in times of grief, anxiety, dissociation, as well as during moments of joy and wonder.  

IMPORTANT:

Please visit our POLICY PAGE to make an educated and informed purchase HERE

Some of the beads used in this strand are limited. We can not anticipate whether or not this particular style will be available again after this release. 

*Length note: Because individual bead measurements vary slightly, total strand lengths are approximate within a few millimeters in either direction. Please reach out via email if you have any questions about this. 

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

Please email: bloodmilkjewels@gmail.com with any questions and we will get back to you in a kind and timely manner.