Aster & Sage the Praying Mantis Earring Studs

Something is very still in the garden right now and you cannot see it. It has been still for a long time, longer than you would believe if someone told you. It is standing on a stem that is almost exactly its color, holding its forelegs up in that posture that looks like prayer but is actually the opposite of prayer, and it is watching you with five eyes while you look right at it and see nothing at all. And then it moves, just once, and suddenly it is the only thing in the garden you can see.

The Carolina Praying Mantis

The word mantis comes from the Greek for soothsayer, a reference to that distinctive resting posture, forelegs raised and folded as if in quiet contemplation of something the rest of us cannot perceive. It is a good name for an animal that seems to exist slightly outside of ordinary time.

There are roughly 20 native mantis species in North America, but the Carolina mantis is the one most people in the eastern United States are likely to encounter if they are lucky enough to encounter a native one at all. While the much larger Chinese and European mantises that many people find in gardens were introduced in the late 1800s, the Carolina mantis has been here all along, smaller and quieter and considerably easier to overlook. It is mottled brown and built to disappear against bark and dried stems, and its primary hunting strategy is simply to become invisible and wait. It can remain motionless for hours. When prey comes close enough the forelegs, which are armed with interlocking spines, strike and lock in a fraction of a second. Nothing that walks into range gets away.

The vision that makes this possible is remarkable. Praying mantises are the only invertebrates in the world capable of seeing in three dimensions, giving them the ability to judge distance with extraordinary precision. Their large compound eyes can detect motion from a significant distance, and their heads can rotate nearly 180 degrees, which means they can track everything happening around them without moving their body at all. They also have three smaller eyes between the large ones that detect light and motion. Five eyes total. All of them watching.

The Piece

Aster and Sage live at your ears, each one posed a little differently the way two mantises in the same garden never quite agree on the exact same direction. Both are made entirely from sterling silver, oxidized so the details read clearly, every leg and antenna and body segment shaped by hand.

They are mismatched in the way nature is. No two mantises ever look quite the same on their stems, and Aster and Sage do not look quite the same on your ears.

The Craftsmanship

• Earrings: sterling silver stud earrings, mismatched pair
• Material: sterling silver throughout, oxidized
• Style: post studs
• Made to Order

One of a Kind

Aster and Sage are made to order just for you, which means each pair will be ever so slightly unique, shaped by hand in the same way but never identical to any other. They are yours from the very first strike of the tool.

A note from Tamara

I have loved praying mantises my whole life in the slightly nervous way you love something that you know is watching you more carefully than you are watching it. There is something about finding one in the garden that feels like being seen by something ancient and entirely unimpressed. I made Aster and Sage because I wanted to wear that feeling. That stillness. That absolute confidence. I named them after two plants they might be hunting in, and I like to think they approve of their names even if they would never admit it.

Shipping

Your Aster and Sage will be made to order just for you in my little studio in the New Hampshire woods. Please allow 1-2 weeks for them to be created. You will receive a tracking number by email so you can follow them on their journey to their new home.