Close

b

Bloodmilk: Katabasis

My perennial favorite jeweler, Bloodmilk, has come out with a new collection, Katabasis (from the Ancient Greek for “descent,” meaning a journey to the Underworld). The pieces are inspired by various elements of Hadean mythology, including Lethe, the river of forgetting, Hekate, the witch goddess who holds the keys to the Underworld, Orpheus who descended in order to bring back his doomed bride Eurydice, the terrible Morai who spin and cut the thread of fate for all mortals. Iridescent moonstones and onyx nest within intricate oxidized settings which seem to blend the ancient with the modern, the elegant sparrow claws and bat bones of Bloodmilk’s iconography forming cradles for the jewels.

Jessica’s statement for the Psychopomp ring is touching and lovely:

…the first iteration was meant to serve as a devotional ring to yourself, a declaration of accepting all of the sharp, inky, messy parts of yourself…your inability to mask at all times…your inability to say the right thing when you “need to”…that you can’t quite seem to feel good any day of the week… This first ring meant accepting these things, wearing a ring that meant belonging to all of the parts of yourself, saying “yes” to every little part, no matter how much society says “no.”

Many years later, this newer version of this ring means all of these things, and it also means you have permission to change too, you have permission to face these things and to chip away at any of them and any of them I missed, and you have support too…something to touch and turn on your finger to know you’re not alone, that I believe magic is real and you’re allowed to believe that too, in whatever way that word resonates for you.

It’s my wish that you’re not alone. That you feel safe and protected, whether it’s with this ring or not, whether it’s with the pages of a book, with the kinship of others…with knowing someone else feels the same way and is working on it too, is also just accepting the same things about themselves too.

b

Malina

Huzzah, I have acquired a copy of the beautiful sold-out Malina print from BloodMilk Exquisite Corpse! This illustration of expressive hands, flowers, snakes, and planchette, by the amazing Liza Corbett, combines my love of floral arrangements in art with my fascination for spiritualism.

Exquisite Corpse takes its name from the 1920s parlor game in which surrealists each added to an assemblage of words or images in turn, and is a collaborative collective focusing on limited runs of art objects by independent artists and craftspeople, including perfumes, incense, handmade trinket boxes and offering bowls, and other things of uncanny beauty.