The cowrie shell has long been a symbol of womanhood and fertility, the appearance of it's underside and lengthwise opening resembling lips, vulva or the eye.

Our cowrie shell ring starts it's journey when these natural wanders wash up on sandy African shores. Our hand-selected cowries are the encased in brass and soldered onto a solid brass band by our highly skilled metal artisans in Cape Town. The entire ring is then silver dipped for a lustrous finish.

Cowries were traditionally used as ancient money both in Africa and Asia. In fact, the classical Chinese character for money originated as a stylised drawing of a cowrie shell. 

Cowries are gastropod mollusks meaning that they are single footed animals, much like snails. In living shells the animal lives inside the shell and a mantle or, body part with two side flaps extends over and meets on top of the shell, thus giving the shell surface it's highly polished characteristic (from all that rubbing), hence porcelain. In fact, the term porcelain derives from the old Italian word for the cowrie shell (porcellana) due to it's similar appearance.

These intriguing natural masterpieces are also associated with fecundity, sexual pleasure and good luck. Now that you know all this, are you willing to live without these gorgeous gastropods adorning at least one of your fingies?

Materials // Real natural cowrie shell, pure brass casing. Silver dipped.

This ring is available in sizes L,M,N,O and P. Just specify your ring size required when you purchase!