Spiders. Butterflies. Ladybugs. Beetles. People wear them on rings, necklaces, bracelets, watches and earrings. What’s more is that they’re often real, as in they actually used to be alive.
Yes, we all have our different styles and tastes in fashion, and bugs are no exception for some of us. In the 1993 movie Jurassic Park, park owner John Hammond’s trademark was a cane which featured a mosquito embedded in tree sap on the handle. While this cane wasn’t exactly a piece of jewelry (it played more of a role in the plot than it did as a fashion item), people now wear rings and necklaces with small bugs preserved and embedded into the diamonds. It’s like that butterfly collection we likely had at one time or another when we were children, only these bugs have been preserved and made into valuable fashion pieces.
Of course, other types of jewelry are more traditional in that the bug is carved out of metal and layered in diamonds or other valuables (i.e. the bug has never lived). This type of jewelry is most often seen in things like pendants and necklaces. Artificial as it may be compared to the other types of bug jewelry, it’s more intended for people who like bugs or have adopted a bug as a personal symbol. For instance, recovering addicts are often instructed to choose a symbol to help them through the recovery process and some people might choose a ladybug as a token of good luck.
Bug jewelry, as odd as it may seem to some, is coveted by others. Think of it as jewelry that just might bite back. Depending on the piece you’re wearing, it may have actually done it at some time.
Scott C for Raymond Lee Jewelers, premiere fine jewelry and luxury watch boutique and buyer.
