Wearing your dead darling’s hair in a ring or a woven into a pendant was a common practice in the Victorian era. Not only was this a way of keeping the decedent close to one’s heart (literally with a pendant), but it was expected of an upstanding member of a society that held death in high regard. This was especially true for Victorian women. Feminine character was judged by how long a woman grieved and how intensely, and mourning jewelry allowed her to continue displaying her grief long after she had shed her dress of raven.
However, as our culture has become more and more death-phobic since the end of the Victorian era, we’ve lost cathartic practices such as these, and pieces of jewelry embodying the feelings of grief, sorrow, and acceptance have become dust-covered relics. Thankfully, Blood Milk Jewels entered the jewelry scene in 2008, and like so many other death positive artists, is working to restore our on-again, off-again relationship with death.
Founded by JL Schnabel, Blood Milk’s masterfully crafted amulets evoke ornate darkness, and are as beautiful to behold as their velvet name promises them to be. With collections such as “Sea Witch,” “Crystal Tombs,” and “Drawing Down The Moon,” they certainly are not the same umber-colored pieces of jewelry that were common in the Victorian era. Filled with labradorite, onyx, and moonstones set in high polish silver, dark polish, and what Schnabel calls her “signature shade of gloomy gray,” Blood Milk pieces are imbibed with new energy and contexts, and Schnabel often intermixes a vintage setting with the brilliance of a crystal that would have been absent from historical mourning jewelry.
Yet, in keeping with the tradition of the Victorian era, Blood Milk jewels are crafted with purpose, and that purpose most often centers around death. Wearing a Blood Milk jewel helps the wearer to both cherish and alleviate grief; to both acknowledge death and find the beauty in its mystery. As she states on her website, Schnabel began the company after the death of her estranged father, which led her to probe the ultimate enigma that is the afterlife. She began making her own kind of modern mourning jewelry, which she refers to as her “psychic armor.”
Her affinity for literature also enables her to center each individual piece of jewelry inside a story or legend that explores death in a cosmic, historical, or mythological way. Such contexts can be found in the descriptions that anchor the display of her jewels on the Blood Milk website. Her pieces frequently conjure the auras of dark goddesses such as Hecate, Persephone, and Nyx.
I was able to view some of these goddess-infused gems at the Mütter Museum in Philadelphia in early October – Blood Milk was one of the featured artists at the Dark Artisans’ Bazaar, a market that took place at the The Order of the Good Death’s Death Salon, where artists, academics, and death professionals gather to converse about mourning and mortality. I purchased “Belonging to the Underworld” from Blood Milk – a silver moonstone ring with a high polish finish. It’s a stunning piece that invokes the aura of the Queen of the Underworld, complete with sparrow claws that hold the coveted moonstone in place. I feel quite like a high priestess when I wear it.
Currently, one of Schnabel’s featured collections is her “Planchettes.” If you were the girl who was always anxious to pull out the Ouija board from the basement during the wee hours of a fourth-grade slumber party, or if you’re drawn to the meaning of the oracle and the magic of the tarot, you’ll find yourself at home in this collection. And while many of Schnabel’s pieces feature gems and rich polish finishes, she also caters to the more traditional mourning aesthetic – but with a modern update, of course. One such piece – that is also popular in the Death Positivity community – is the “Our darling funerary necklace.” It’s an enormous, tombstone-like pendant from the Victorian era set in oxidized silver that is held on a delicate onyx chain. I plan on it being the next piece that I add to my Blood Milk collection.
Now, if you’re more of a warlock type, don’t fret. Many of Schnabel’s pieces are so steeped in the macabre and have such dark polishes, especially the Poe-evocative “Claw & Talon” collection, that they possess both masculine and feminine energies. No matter how you gender-identify, you’ll be able to find a Blood Milk jewel that speaks to your own unique set of powers.
Whether you are simply seeking a bejeweled adornment to enhance your black wardrobe, or you’re looking for a meaningfully crafted piece to saturate with your own grief and mourning, Blood Milk Jewels is queen of death regalia.
