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 luminescent Mother of Pearl "eye" glows within a frame of silver cast bat bones, designed in exquisite detail to echo a Baroque mirror frame. A single matching Mother of Pearl 'tear' flows from beneath it. 

As a talisman of divination and protection, a single eye looking out in all directions is a symbol seen across time and cultures. In this jewel, it represents the Eye of the Pythia, the Oracle of Delphi, who was a channel between realms, and who assisted in making important decisions via prophesying the future. It's hard to know/imagine what our future looks like in these ever increasingly horrific times. Grief feels like a well that fresh grief/water keeps being poured into, until it becomes indistinguishable, a river that flows through our heart's blood. This jewel is a reminder to keep our eyes ( & heart ) open, to observe rather than look away, to 'see' in all directions. Singular eyes worn on the body or affixed in homes have also been used as apotropaic talismans, deflecting negativity across time, and this jewel is tethered to that tradition while also carrying the beauty and symbolism of the pearl.

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* : 

- 50 mm from top to bottom including tear

- 51 mm at its widest

- Solid Sterling Silver  

- Seen on Miguel on a 20" chain

- 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 20mm x 30mm oval Mother of Pearl cabochon and one 9x13 pear cut Mother of Pearl

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 slight differences in size as well as small signs of the carver's hands along the edges. As these are hand cut and not fabricated by a machine, they can never be 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