What is BREASTMILK JEWELRY?!

Let's dive into what exactly breastmilk jewelry is—how breastmilk jewelry is made and the importance of breastmilk jewelry. Wild Flowers & Milk Specializes in custom breastmilk jewelry to celebrate and honor breastfeeding journeys. 

Jewelry made with breastmilk, say what?! Now, this can seem like a bizarre concept to those who don't 'get' everything that goes breastfeeding. For me, I wanted a way to preserve all the hard work I put into it with something tangible that I could remember overcoming all the struggles. For some, it's to celebrate how long that made it on their journey. Other's it's a reminder that it is okay that their breastfeeding journey didn't go as planned. Breastmilk jewelry can be very healing to those who produce breastmilk after a loss. 

How is breastmilk jewelry made? Disclaimer: This is not an informative post about how to execute this process. At this time, Wild Flowers & Milk does not offer classes or mentoring about how to do this, possibly in the future so be sure to sign up for our email list. However, if you want to try at home, PLEASE do your research as some of the chemicals can be very toxic and dangerous without proper PPE and education. Now into the fun stuff... 

Many artists create breastmilk jewelry like any other art form; we all use different mediums, and our creative process is unique to our creating style. So I am only speaking for Wild Flowers & Milk!

First, we must preserve your breastmilk! We at Wild Flowers & Milk do this using a heating method and add a non-toxic preserving additive that helps turn your breastmilk into a paste! From there, we dry the breastmilk paste. Once it's dry, we hand grind it into a fine powder. 

Next up is creating your stone! We use custom molds we make in-house for this process and use a resin base for your stone. We can add your inclusions breastmilk, flowers, flakes, ashes, etc. We carefully place everything until we get the look we want! Then it's time to cure. 

After your stone is cured, we set it into your choice of jewelry! Then it's time to give it a quality check and ship it off to its owner! 

Things to watch out for when looking for a Breastmilk Jewelry artist:

I will be the first to admit my business won't be the right fit for everything, and I'm okay with this! There is plenty of customers to go around, and I genuinely value community over competition. So if you're on the hunt for another breastmilk jewelry artist, here are a few things to consider: 

Trust: Do they give you enough transparency about their process behind the scenes for you to trust them with your breastmilk? Don't be afraid to ask questions! Any reputable business owner will be more than happy to answer questions about the integrity of their process; if they get defensive or refuse to answer, RUN. 

Quality: Not all shops are created equal. Some use cheap plated material that won't last; others have solid gold options. Some shops (like us) use gold-filled, which is an excellent option for quality without paying the premium price for solid gold. You want to make sure you are getting something that will last, so do your research. Also, check out the warranties! If something quality-related happens to your piece, will the company help fix it? I've heard so many horror stories from customers who've worked with other shops. 

Style: Everyone has a different style of pieces! Be sure to find a company that you vibe with their work. As an artist, the last thing I want is someone to hire me just because and not be in love with what I deliver. You want to make sure that you LOVE their portfolio. 

Turn around times: From what I can tell, the industry-standard seems to be anywhere from 6-15 weeks long. Shops with shorter turnaround times may just be starting up and still in their trial and error phase of business. Now everyone starts somewhere, and I'm in no way knocking it as I was there myself but keep this in mind. 

Overall, breastmilk jewelry is exceptionally meaningful, and it should be treated as such by whomever you choose to create your piece. At Wild Flowers & Milk, we are always as transparent as possible with our behind-the-scenes process. We want our customers to feel confident in our processing! We hold integrity and quality over sales without a doubt! Be sure to check out our FAQ page for more details on how ordering Breastmilk Jewelry works at Wild Flowers & Milk! Please reach out via the contact form if you have any questions!