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. 

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Inspired by variations of the Pythia series, this petite ring features a setting that echoes the style of a baroque mirror frame. The setting is created from a collage of cast bat bones that cradle a small, slightly domed Mother of Pearl cabochon. This framed mirror inspired design is meant to represent the divinatory aspect of ‘crystal gazing,’ a nod to the divinatory roles of the Pythia.

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* :

- 19 mm wide 

- 25 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 round 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 mother of 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.

***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