It is the hour just before dark. The air is warm and still and something is about to happen. You have been watching the field at the edge of the woods for twenty minutes now, waiting, and then all at once the first light blinks on. Then another. Then ten more. Then the whole meadow is full of cold green fire and you forget completely what you were doing before this moment.
Nyx, the Firefly
Fireflies are not flies. They are beetles, members of the family Lampyridae, and they have been lighting up summer nights for approximately 100 million years. The light they produce is called bioluminescence, generated by a chemical reaction between two compounds called luciferin and luciferase in a specialized organ in the abdomen. It is nearly 100% efficient, producing almost no heat at all. A standard incandescent light bulb wastes 90% of its energy as heat. A firefly wastes almost none.
Each firefly species has its own private language of light, a specific flash pattern that males broadcast in flight while females watch from the vegetation below and signal back. They are having entire conversations in the dark that most of us walk right past without knowing.
Here in New Hampshire there are approximately 15 species of fireflies. Nyx, named after the Greek goddess of night, rests on a leaf from one of our most beloved and most threatened native trees.
The American Beech Leaf
Nyx the firefly was made on an American beech leaf, and that choice was not accidental. The American beech is one of the most ecologically important trees in the northern hardwood forest, providing food and shelter for bears, birds, and dozens of other species. Its smooth silver gray bark and golden winter leaves are one of the most recognizable signatures of a New England forest.
Right now the American beech in New Hampshire is fighting for its life on two fronts simultaneously. Beech bark disease, caused by an invasive European scale insect called Cryptococcus fagisuga introduced to Nova Scotia in 1890 combined with native fungal pathogens, has been weakening and killing beech trees across New England for decades. It causes deep cankers in the bark and leaves trees vulnerable to breaking in wind.
Now a second threat has arrived. Beech leaf disease is caused by an invasive nematode called Litylenchus crenatae mccannii, first detected in the United States in Ohio in 2012 and first found in New Hampshire in 2022. It now appears in every single county in this state. The nematode infests the leaf tissue, producing dark banded stripes between the veins, causing leaves to become leathery and distorted, and killing trees within three to six years of serious infection. Beech trees already weakened by beech bark disease are particularly vulnerable.
Nyx rests on a beech leaf because I want everyone who sees this bracelet to know that these trees are in trouble. The leaf she sits on is a record of something worth fighting for.
The Bracelet
Nyx is a firefly carved entirely by hand from sterling silver, resting on a hand textured sterling silver beech leaf cuff bracelet. Her abdomen is a teardrop of glow in the dark borosilicate glass that I made myself in my studio using a torch. It glows blue green in the dark. She has six delicate sterling silver legs, a detailed pronotum and head, and folded silver wings that catch the light differently depending on how you move.
The leaf beneath her measures approximately 1.75 inches tall and 2 inches wide at its widest point. The cuff band has an opening in the back to put it on your wrist. On the underside of the leaf, hidden from view unless you look for them, are five tiny round sterling silver eggs that Nyx has laid on the back of her leaf. They are her secret. Also on the underside you will find my maker's mark, Max the cat sitting on his anvil, because every piece that leaves my studio carries a little piece of him with it.
- Firefly: hand carved sterling silver with handmade glow in the dark borosilicate glass abdomen
- Leaf: approximately 1.75 inches tall, 2 inches wide, hand textured sterling silver
- Cuff band: half round 8 gauge sterling silver wire
- Hidden details: five sterling silver eggs on the underside of the leaf, maker's mark of Max on his anvil
- Glow color: blue green
- Material: sterling silver throughout with handmade borosilicate glass
One of a Kind
There is only one Nyx in the world. When she finds her home she will never be made again exactly like this. The eggs on the back of her leaf will never be hidden in exactly this arrangement again. The beech leaf she rests on will never exist again either. That felt important.
A Note from Tamara
I made Nyx because firefly season in New Hampshire is one of the most quietly extraordinary things I have ever witnessed and I wanted to make something that carries that feeling. I made her on a beech leaf on purpose, because the trees outside my studio window are sick and I am not ready to stop paying attention to them. Finding ways to help them! I added the hidden eggs on the back because fireflies lay their eggs in leaf litter and moss and soil, and because I liked the idea of a secret that only the person wearing her would know about. I hope she makes you go outside on summer evenings and look for cold green fire in the field and create memories.
Shipping
Nyx is finished, packaged safely, and will be on her way to you within 3 to 5 business days. You will receive a tracking number by email so you can follow her on her journey to her new home.