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.

The spiral is an ancient Neolithic symbol seen across cultures and places in the world, including as paintings in caves and petroglyph carvings . While we can only surmise what the symbol meant to our ancestors, some guesses suggest the symbol is a representation of the sun, or a portal to the spirit world. Others include it representing life itself, or life beyond life. Eternity. In some cultures, spirals featured prominently at burial mounds, carved into stones at the entrances to tombs. 

We enter the spiral and traverse its path in a similar way we do the labyrinth, circling around it, moving both forward and backward. The spiral mimics the way memory works ~ a carpet rolled up in our minds that we can unfurl, seemingly endless rings of time we can access when we look backward, to aid us in moving forward. 

As a way to view life and time in its true a non-linear fashion, the spiral represents how we have both gains and losses throughout our life, expansion and retraction. As a talismanic vessel, this jewel can be work to aid its wearer with accepting this way of experiencing life. Wear as a companion whilst walking the spiral, or use it as a tactile object within your fingers for grounding. 

Paired with a black mother of pearl representing a tear of grief, the spiral is likened to the sea and water; life giving elements. 

*Details*:

- 40 mm at its widest 

- 49 mm from top to bottom including jump ring

- Solid Sterling Silver  

- Shown on Miguel on a 20 inch chain

- Set with one 13 x 18 mm pear cut Black Mother of Pearl 

- 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.

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 have a subtle iridescence of tones of pink, blue, and green when turned in the light as well as to just containing a dark 'flash.'

***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