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. 

Shaped like a drop of water or a single tear, shed in grief or joy, a glimmering Mother of Pearl gemstone is set in a design composed of cast bat bones that echo the style of a baroque mirror frame.

The River Lethe flows around the cave of Hypnos, the God of Sleep, which was veiled in silence, save for the sound of the river moving across the rocks on its banks. This river was also known to be the river of forgetfulness and oblivion. Those who crossed from life into the Underworld and who drank from this river would forget their lives, sloughing off their memories like snakeskin, readying themselves for reincarnation. There’s something about this notion, the choice to forget, to willingly let go of memories, that I find interesting, that I simultaneously long for and feel repulsed by. Who are we without our memories ? & yet, there are so many memories I wish I could wipe away forever; unexpected memories that float to the surface at night, when the patterns of my thoughts change, catching me unaware. The memories of mistakes, of horror, of shame. Likewise, there are also memories I’d love to conjure in more crisp detail, that wear smoother & threadbare every time I revisit them. What a tricky thing it is to remember, to forget. Sorrow < > Joy. Beauty < > Horror. 

Lethe is one of five rivers that flowed through the Underworld and that the psychopomp, Charon, would carry the ferry dead over. In myth, to drink from the River Lethe would cause forgetfulness of your previous life, often preparing your soul for reincarnation. Lethe is also the Goddess of Oblivion, for whom the river is named. 

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* :

- 20 mm wide 

- 26 mm from top to bottom 

- 9 mm off of the finger

 - Solid Sterling Silver and hand oxidized to achieve a stormy gray. Slightly polished reveal the luminous silver tones beneath.  

 - This listing is for one Pythia ring set with one pear cut 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 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.                   

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