A note from Lily Streeter...

Presenting: The Guardian Ring, an Alex and Lily Streeter co-production. This ring is a two-part story - it’s at once an homage to the great god Anubis, as well as a silver portrait of Alex’s faithful Chihuahua Jake. Alex and I worked on this ring together in November of 2021, and were about to release it when Jake suddenly passed away in January of 2022 at the ripe old age of 17. We had to take some time to collect our thoughts and grieve our loss, but my father and I feel that now is the right time to release this ring as a celebration of Jake’s life. This piece is a happy one, carved at a time when Jake was still in great health and spirits and it is therefore imbued with all the joy Jake brought to our lives.

The idea for this ring came about as Alex and I were studying Ancient Egyptian gods and their mysterious attributes. We came across Anubis, a figure with the head of a dog and the body of a man. Anubis is an older god, the original God of the Dead who was later replaced as Lord of the Underworld by Osiris. Alex remarked that Anubis looked an awful lot like Jake, a black dog with those same large pointy ears and a tapered snout…

This reminded us of our favorite story about Chihuahas, stemming from Aztec mythology. The Aztecs believed that when an Aztec noble would die, it was necessary to slay a Chihuahua and bury or cremate it with the body of the human. They believed that the spirit of the dead Chihuahua would act as a guide through the afterlife for the soul of the dead noble. Strangely enough, Anubis fulfills a similar role as as the usher of souls into the the next realm. He was a guardian of the dead who made sure they received their due rights in burial and stood by them in life after death to assist in their resurrection.

This ring is a tribute to all the little animal guardians who watch over us and protect our souls, both in life and in death. What a blessing they are, if only with us for a short time. Perhaps we’ll meet them all again in the next life…