Quick Tales: Our Darling + SO MUCH PRETTY!

Quick Tales are just what they imply: Quick Tales. Flash Fiction. Magic in less than 500 words.
This time, we're talking supernatural inspired jewelry as well- from Bloodmilk!
First the story, my darlings, and then the pretty begins!

 

OUR DARLING

 



You can buy this here



 

After the funeral we give out little pendants as keepsakes.

Some of the attendees gasp and some others weep, but most are enthralled by the delicate beauty of cold iron. The men clasp it in their palms and remark that it is icy as the hand of Death; the ladies shed tears on the arabesque pattern and declare the simple inscription beautiful.

To those who ask, I say, “John made them himself; he’s been shut up in his workshop since our daughter died.”

They swoon and gasp when I say that, as if there is nothing more beautiful in this world than a father choosing to mourn by casting designs in dark metal.

The next morning there is a man at the door with the Our Darling pendant, claiming he’d seen a ghost. More of them walk up the carpet of snow to knock at our door: ladies who’d felt a cold finger upon their throats or the chill of a ghost brushing their arms; men who’d seen a fleeting wraith or heard a disembodied voice protesting at her split ethereality.

John puts a box outside our front door, titled “Leave your haunted pendant here!” and checks it twice every day for new deposits.

He wants to collect all the pendants so he can melt them and resurrect our daughter as one giant Our Darling pendant.

I tell him she’d rather be a diamond ring.

             (C) Varsha Dinesh

 

So- still with me? Then let's talk about Bloodmilk.  The first I hear about them is from Erin Morgenstern's Blog. Their tagline is "Supernatural Jewelry for Surrealist Darlings" so obviously, I'm all curious. I head over to Etsy, and find this awesome banner

And then, of course, I stumble across the Our Darling ring and just HAVE to write a story. There's so much gothic about Bloodmilk, it's exactly the kind of jewelry I'd kill to have. Here's just a few samples, so you know I'm not just barking up a random tree, but I suggest you check out the Etsy shop- it's totally, absolutely worth it, since the owner does these BPAL like write-ups that are an ABSOLUTE pleasure to read.

 

Ah, it's been guilty pleasure overload, searching through the shop. You can also read the owner's blog here at http://www.jlschnabel.com/ 

I'll leave you with one more image from Bloodmilk, a personal favorite:

This one, called a l'amour fou sterling cocktail ring, is based on the surrealist term "l'amour fou," coined by Andre Breton, a term that I once used to make a wallpaper- which has since been lost in the internet ocean. (There's a story there, isn't there? A sweet old creation, lost in the internet ocean.)

l'amour fou, means (probably to your delight) Mad Love. Crazy, obsessive, exhilarating, inspiring, dangerous, dark, compulsive love. Like the way travellers fall for cunning leannen sidhe on dark faery paths.

Have a good weekend.
Peace out.