I know I’m not the first person to embellish insects with gemstones, but once in deep meditation I travelled like way down under to the deepest darkest seas and what I saw there were creatures with shells like the back of a cicada and gargantuan armadillo-like creatures encrusted with raw gemstones that had formed on their backs over the course of thousands of years— slow crawling, beautiful beasts carrying the sparkling brightness of magical crystals formed by the earth and space and all of every element. Of course, because of the darkness, your average human eye couldn’t possibly see this.. but in my altered state I could see everything and realized of course beautiful breathtaking things live inside spaces where humans often have intense fear… and also that it was the perfect metaphor for something I’ve always lived and loved and struggled with—- that the most vibrant things live in the deepest shadows.. which means intensity and almost drowning and you know.. shadow work. But I’d rather spend my life working to reconcile some balance between the under and over worlds such that vibrancy is sustained and also that no one is drowning.. rather than live on the surface areas that feel safer and are inherently therefore far from beauty.. and I think these gemstone encrusted cicadas do a pretty fair job at emulating that alchemy.
 
This necklace features a REAL gigant cicada from Thailand that is encased in copper and embellished with blue faceted sapphires and a mother of pearl. It has also been embellished with 24k gold, and hangs from a box copper chain and features a bronze s-hook clasp.