"Treasure Chest" Bahama Starfish Coin & Mixed Metal Backer Necklace

Starfish

One of the world’s most incredible creatures, this invertebrate can actually regrow its own limbs. There’s a story my high school biology teacher told the class about a fishing village where all of the fisherman were fed up with how many starfish they had to peel of their nets. In order to solve the problem they chopped the starfish in half and threw them back into the water. The fisherman has no idea that by chopping the starfish in half they were making the problem worse! Both halves of the starfish would regenerate their missing halves and now instead of one starfish, there were two.

Coins

An undeniable symbol of one’s own worth. One of the most valued tangible (nowadays more or less conceptual) items amongst mankind, is money. And why it is so valuable is not because of the item or numerical digit inside our bank account itself- but the countless possibilities it can represent for one’s life. When we relate to the positive associations of the coin, we remember that we hold the necessary tools inside ourselves to build the life of our dreams, to sustain our own lives and those we look after, to treat ourselves kindly, and to even uplift the sense of worth in others with the unspoken words “you deserve this” as we pass these tools along to one another. 

Since the very beginning of coins’ existence, they have also served as an amazing visual display of a territory’s history, accomplishments, and culture, making them a potent symbol of pride and remembrance of where we came from and what makes us, us.

Brass

Brass is a metal alloy composed of copper and zinc which has gained popularity because of its bright color and resistance to wear. Like all other natural elements of the world- gemstones, planets, spirit animals, and so on- metals, too, hold rich symbolic meaning and characteristics. After all, there were entire periods of human civilization named after these earthly materials, such as the Iron and Bronze ages. Brass has been known to be associated with endurance, positivity, problem-solving, and youthfulness of the mind.

Silver

This lustrous and malleable metal has been a part of the human story for millennia. As early as 3000 BCE there were large-scale hard rock silver mines found in Anatolia, which is now modern-day Turkey, that supplied the surrounding city-states. However, the story of silver can be traced to as early as 5000 BCE when it was mined alongside ancient copper deposits on a smaller scale. Similar to gold silver doesn’t rust or tarnish like other metals and can be smithed into beautiful jewelry, vessels for carrying or drinking from, and has innumerable other uses. It exhibits the highest thermal and electrical conductivity and reflectivity of any metal.  In the Americas, silver was commonly repurposed from Spanish coins as source material for Native American jewelry makers