The Prayer Ring

This ring was the first I ever made using the lost-wax casting technique.  Do you guys know what that technique is?  Lost-wax casting is slightly beyond the scope of this post... so, if you find yourself curious, please head on over here to find out more (Wikipedia isn't my favorite, but all the other articles I found were too technical!  Good for me, bad for you).

Anyway!  This ring.

In Native American cultures, the feather is a symbol of prayers.  I wanted to make a piece of jewelry that was a symbol of where I wanted to go... a symbol of the path that I was walking for myself.

So, on the exterior of the ring I carved a sculptural feather to symbolize my prayers for the path ahead.

And on the interior of the band, I carved four symbols, each symbol representing a wish that I had for myself.  I enjoyed the idea that the wishes would be next to my skin... private, personal, sacred, hidden.  And here are the four symbols:

The Hand: Quite simply, this symbol means "human."  It is a symbol that means "touch," "I was here," and of course, "handmade."

The Howling Wolf:  In Native American cultures, animals are often looked to as spirit guides, and the wolf was and still is one of my spirit guides.  The wolf has teacher medicine and is a divine pathfinder, often bringing intuition and inner strength and the howling wolf is symbol of harmony.

The Horse: Another of my spirit animals, the horse is a Messenger, capable of traveling between this world and the next to bring clarity and guidance.  The horse is also a symbol of freedom, power, and adventure.

The North Star: Simply put, the north star is a symbol of perfect guidance.  But personally, to me is it also a symbol of inner light and that warm, inner glow.

This is another one of those Edinboro projects that I still wear and enjoy.  This ring is just dear to my heart because even though it is a clunker (sleek this thing is not), all the symbolism and meaning makes this ring a stunner to me.