Pearls are accreted. The process is one of host defense, and the result is prized for its beauty. What if the fruits of our own complex immune system in fighting off parasites or other interlopers were gemstones? Most pearls are cultured, and the irritants are implanted into freshwater mussels or saltwater oysters; they are slightly less magical, but the animal’s work remains the same as it was when pearls were rare discoveries.

When I began pulling pearls into my jewelry it was by means of a primitive casting process where molten metal is poured into water. This is often the first step to alloying metal and how goldsmiths create grains or shot of a specific color and quality. The size and shape of the metal pieces correlates to the temperature of the water, the distance of the molten metal from the surface, the movement of the water, and a little bit of magic. In some European cultures, metal casting, usually with lead, is a form of divination. The shapes that result from this meeting of molten metal and cold water, a way of foretelling the new year. There’s even a word for this, molybdomancy, from the Greek word for lead and the suffix that points to divination. There is a brief moment in casting when the goldsmith witnesses the physical transformation of material, from solid to liquid and back to solid again –the metal glows red, mercurial, and then dark red, dull, grey, the light goes out as it cools, and the animus, if there was one there, disappears.