Custom Jewelry Orders? Yes Please.

A strange thing happened a few weeks ago. A dog with a mohawk named Millie lost its tooth in an epic battle with a tennis ball. This tooth was saved, held in a little pink plastic satchel, and eventually made its way into my hands. A now very good friend of mine – Country Leigh – had a request: If there was one thing that she wanted for her birthday, it was a custom made necklace by Mr. Lentz that would include her dog’s tooth. I thought it would fun to come up with a design on the fly, then do a photo shoot with Country Leigh and have her add a few words of her own.

Here’s what she had to say:

Country Leigh: “Millie is a dog who is more famous than others, having been featured in a book called “Pets Who Want to Kill Themselves” as well as a local newspaper article about how to “green” your pet (See photo below). She even has her own dog treat company called Millie’s Dog Bites, coming soon to a store near you!Millie’s latest claim to fame is her donation of a large upper canine tooth to an art project by Mr. Lentz. I wish I could say that she lost her tooth while fighting to protect me from a grizzly bear, or even while foraging for food while we were lost in the woods. But, alas, poor Millie just had a run of the mill “freak” accident while playing with a tennis ball in the backyard.

After fifteen hundred dollars worth of surgery to remove the tooth and reconstruct what was left of her nasal cavity, Millie was on her way to recovery. As I was leaving the vet’s office, the staff all joked that maybe I could make a necklace of the giant tooth they had extracted. As you will see, the joke is on them because Mr. Lentz turned that tooth into the coolest necklace this side of the Mississippi! I can’t wait to go back at Millie’s next checkup to show off this amazing piece of art.

When I heard about Mr. Lentz’s incredible line of handcrafted jewelry called Wear Nature: Beast Series, I knew exactly how I wanted Millie’s tooth to be preserved for all to see. Being a good friend of mine, Mr. Lentz graciously offered to clean, buff and whiten Millie’s tooth as he thought up an amazing one-of-a-kind piece of art for me to proudly wear around my neck.

Millie sure thinks I’m weird for wearing her tooth as jewelry, but I absolutely adore my Beast Series necklace. I can’t wait to see what else Mr. Lentz cooks up in that creative mind of his!”

Above: A happy Millie, pre-tooth expulsion….Below: A happy Country Leigh, post tooth necklace creation.
  

The design for this piece was a mystery all the way up until I had the tooth in my hand. That’s when it immediately popped into my head, a shape mimicking the natural curve of the tooth. A delicate form meant to bring focus to this particular denticle.

And finally, the original tooth as it appeared one day below my door mat where I picked it up in awe. ‘Jesus’ I said, ‘Look at the size of that there root!’ and the rest is history.

I am now offering custom made beast jewelry through my online shop. Have some old horse mane clippings lying around? Or maybe your pet albino rabbit finally shed its pinky nail? Perhaps you went on a hike and found a mysterious horn from a beast so unimaginably large that all you can think of is sending it to me to figure out what to make of it? I accept the challenge. However there is one rule. I certainly do not want to receive bloody, mangy, diseased, fly ridden, gristly items in my mailbox, and I am pretty sure the postwoman would rather not have to cart some extremely rottingly smelly package around in her hot delivery van all day. So – to be accepted into the custom made circle, you must first send me a photo of the item (hopefully with a few people around it so I can tell if they look like they are going to lose their lunch).

That is all.

Start your custom orders: Here!