Silver Bee Jewelry—Mandala Four Bees Necklace in Garnet and Fossilized Mammoth Tusk

The Egyptians saw the bee as a symbol of the soul. This miraculous and ecologically essential creature is also seen as a vital symbol of community and diligence. The bee serves the greater whole, an image that Zealandia lead designer Jenny Byrne sought to capture in this carved ivory pendant that centers on the Mandala, which means circle. Jenny's silver bee jewelry also takes its inspiration from our desire to honor the honeybee in light of the drastic reduction we are seeing in our current bee populations.

The Mandala is a traditional Buddhist and Hindu representation of the universe, a deeply spiritual shape that is a meditational image of the eternal oneness in all of life. Our four bees necklace celebrates one of the universe's smallest, yet most dynamic, creatures. The bee is the king of pollinators, ensuring the flowering and fruit producing plants' survival, and so the survival of all of us along the food chain.

Jenny selected red garnet, a heart stone associated with love and passion, as the heart of this mammoth ivory necklace. Garnet highlights the mammoth ivory bees' natural earthy tones as well as the rich yellow in the bees' 14k gold fill wing and body accents.

The fossilized mammoth tusk ivory used to carve our bees is over 15,000 years old, dating back to when the last of the great mammoths roamed the earth. It has lain buried for centuries where it accretes its cream to honey or deep cocoa hue. To touch a piece of mammoth ivory is to remember how we can lose our animal friends to extinction'a threat that is very real for the honeybee of today.

We hope that our four bees necklace brings much pleasure to its owner and also that it raises awareness to help preserve and replenish our declining worldwide bee populations.