The act of adorning the human body with various types of ornamentation predates any written record, and when you consider the 10 types jewelry that have fascinated cultures across millennia, it becomes clear that our love of bling is as ancient as storytelling itself. Whether the sparkle comes from a humble seashell, a polished animal tooth, or a glittering chunk of diamond, humans have always found a way to turn nature’s gifts into personal statements. Let’s be honest—who doesn’t enjoy slipping on a lovely piece of sparkle?
Why 10 Types Jewelry Capture Our Curiosity
From mourning trinkets to avant‑garde experiments, each of these ten categories pushes the limits of what we normally deem “wearable.” Some pieces honor the departed, others celebrate scientific wonder, and a few simply revel in the shock factor. Below, we dive deep into each unconventional material, sharing the history, the modern twists, and the stories that make these items both fascinating and, at times, a little unsettling.
10 Human Hair
When my own grandmother passed away, I was sorting through her belongings and stumbled upon a delicately woven necklace. It turned out to be a piece of micro‑macramé—yes, that’s an actual term—crafted entirely from human hair. The intricate swirls, twists, and knots suggested hours of meticulous work by an artisan with a steady hand and a keen eye for detail.
From the 1600s through the Victorian era, hair‑based mourning jewelry was a widespread custom. People would embed strands from departed loved ones into rings, brooches, and pendants as a tangible reminder of those they’d lost. Queen Victoria herself famously wore a lock‑of‑hair pendant containing Prince Albert’s hair after his 1861 death, and she even gifted hair‑crafted pieces to her nine children and forty‑two grandchildren.
Because hair resists rapid decomposition, it was seen as an enduring symbol of eternal life and a lasting tribute to the departed. The practice captured a blend of grief, reverence, and a desire to keep a part of the loved one close at hand.
9 Human Teeth
Much like hair, human teeth have also found their way into adornments—though the notion may conjure images of macabre crafts. Archaeologists uncovered modified molars at a Neolithic site in Çatalhöyük, Turkey, dating back roughly 9,000 years. These teeth were drilled and threaded onto leather or sinew, turning them into early ornamental pieces.
Queen Victoria also dabbled in this eerie art, owning an enamel brooch that featured a baby tooth from one of her many offspring as the thistle’s tuft. The piece blended royal elegance with an intimate, personal touch.
Fast‑forward to today, Melbourne designer Polly Van Der Glas offers a contemporary collection that sets human teeth in sterling silver. She even advertises a 10 % discount for customers who supply the teeth themselves. A quick search on Etsy reveals over 790 listings for tooth‑based jewelry, proving that the fascination endures.
8 Breast Milk
Yes, you read that correctly—breast milk can become a keepsake. After the milk is dehydrated, artisans embed it in epoxy resin or glaze it with a clear coating, creating a solid, translucent stone that captures the essence of a mother’s early nourishment.
One product description calls it “a wonderful way to preserve the ‘liquid gold’ that we can only produce for a limited time,” emphasizing its sentimental value as a generational heirloom. The description adds that the piece can be passed down, celebrating the very foundation of a child’s survival.
Another seller highlights that the jewelry “beautifully commemorates your breastfeeding journey,” noting that the resin can also house hair or an umbilical cord for added personalization. The market even offers DIY kits for crafty individuals who want to create their own milk‑infused mementos.
Imagine the novelty of gifting a pair of cuff‑links fashioned from both breast milk and umbilical cord—certainly a conversation starter for any holiday gathering.
It’s a striking reminder that even the most intimate, fleeting substances can be transformed into lasting adornments.
7 Cremated Remains (Ashes)
I’ll admit, some of the ash‑based jewelry options I’ve seen look surprisingly sleek. Incorporating cremated remains into wearable art can be as simple as a tiny urn pendant with a secure lid, or as elaborate as glass beads and pendants that fuse ash into vibrant colors and patterns.
Creating a memorial diamond involves a more involved process: roughly a teaspoon of ashes (or 100–200 g of ash, or 2–8 g of hair) is purified to extract carbon, which then becomes a seed for a high‑pressure, high‑temperature growth chamber. Under pressures exceeding 2,000 °C, the carbon crystallizes into a rough diamond, which is later cut, polished, and set just like a natural gem.
Lab‑grown cremation diamonds mirror the brilliance, fire, and durability of mined stones, but they avoid the environmental and ethical concerns tied to traditional mining. With growing awareness of conflict diamonds, many view these memorial gems as a responsible, emotionally resonant alternative.
6 An IUD
For those unfamiliar with the abbreviation, an IUD (Intrauterine Device) is a highly effective, over‑99 % reliable, long‑acting reversible contraceptive placed inside the uterus. It’s a staple of modern family planning.
Australian jeweler Jacqui, known for crafting pieces from hair, teeth, and bone, once received a request to fashion a necklace from a used plastic IUD. She declined, citing sanitation challenges and concerns about the piece’s longevity, but the story illustrates how far some clients will go to personalize their accessories.
While Jacqui didn’t take on the project, replicas of IUD‑inspired jewelry can be found on platforms like Etsy, showing that even medical devices can inspire avant‑garde design concepts.
5 Live Insects
Victorian fashion once embraced living insects as a bold statement of natural wonder. As industrialization surged, many middle‑class women sought a tangible connection to Mother Nature, inspired by Darwin’s 1859 publication of “On the Origin of Species.”
The solution? Adornments that featured actual creatures. A traveling Englishwoman recounted witnessing Brazilian markets brimming with brilliantly colored butterflies and beetles, which were set into brooches, earrings, rings, and tie‑pins. The craze even pushed some species toward the brink of extinction due to high demand.
The trend evolved from incorporating insect parts and taxidermied hummingbirds to showcasing live insects in delicate cages attached to clothing with pins. Some larger beetles were even encrusted with real gems before being linked to garments via fine chains.
Today, in Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, artisans still create jewelry featuring live makech beetles, covering them in rhinestones and securing them with gold chains—a practice said to trace back to a Mayan legend where a shaman turned a doomed lover into a sparkling beetle so the princess could keep him close forever.
4 Uranium
Uranium glass—also known as Vaseline or canary glass—was once a popular decorative material before the health risks of radioactivity were fully understood. Some pieces contain up to 25 % uranium oxide, giving them a distinctive yellow hue that glows eerie green under UV light.
Historically, artisans used uranium‑infused glass to craft tableware, serving dishes, and even cloisonné jewelry, where the metalwork’s lighter colors derived from the uranium glaze.
Modern uranium glass jewelry emits only negligible radiation, barely detectable even with sensitive Geiger counters, and is generally considered safe. Still, the idea of placing a mildly radioactive object against the skin can give many pause.
3 Roadkill
Montana‑based designer April Hale once struck a squirrel with her car. Rather than fleeing, she chose to honor the animal by cooking, consuming, and eventually incorporating its remains into jewelry—an act she described as “environmental responsibility” and “a reverent thank‑you.”
Hale had previously worked with animal fur, but the roadkill incident pushed her into a new realm of fear‑conquering creativity. She now skins, cleans, and fashions dead animals into wearable art, believing each piece reflects a deep connection to the earth and its creatures.
London jeweler Kat Arnold, a committed vegan, discovered a puppy skull on a Cuban beach and, after painstakingly cleaning it, began creating bone jewelry. She sources bones from roadkill and wild animals—rabbits, crows, badgers, snakes, and more—transforming what many consider “natural waste” into timeless treasures.
Both artists acknowledge that society may balk at the idea of wearing bone or roadkill jewelry, yet they point out the irony: many people comfortably wear leather shoes, a product of animal hide, without a second thought.
2 Contact Lenses
Contact lens jewelry has emerged as a niche for those who want to sparkle right down to their irises. Dutch designer Eric Klarenbeek fuses tiny crystals and diamonds onto contact lenses, creating a dangling, tear‑like effect that turns eyes into a living canvas.
Klarenbeek likens his work to the evolution of spectacles as identity symbols, arguing that modern aesthetics are driven by a desire for virtual perfection—much like Photoshop filters or cosmetic surgery. He sees eye jewelry as a celebration of scientific progress and the beauty of imperfection.
When asked about safety, Klarenbeek admitted that a tug could simply cause the lens to fall out, or in a worst‑case scenario, a wire might break—though the latter is unlikely to dislodge the eye itself.
In India, Dr. Chawan’s Shekhar Eye Research Center markets diamond‑encrusted contact lenses, offering a literal sparkle to the eyeball. The inspiration, according to the clinic, came from a wife’s tooth‑embedded jewelry, proving that the quest for ocular bling knows no bounds.
1 Gallstones
Gallstones are hardened deposits formed from bile in the gallbladder, an organ tucked under the liver. While some individuals experience no symptoms, others endure painful gallbladder attacks that often lead to surgical removal. After surgery, the extracted stones are usually discarded, but a few creative souls have chosen to repurpose them into jewelry.
One hospital team in India removed roughly 300 stones from a patient’s gallbladder, then handed them to a staff member who crafted a matching set of necklace, earrings, nose ring, and bracelet—all fashioned from the very stones that once caused discomfort.
In Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, a bead shop owner recounted a customer arriving with a zip‑lock bag of irregular, half‑inch brownish “beads.” After the doctor gave her the stones post‑surgery, the owner drilled tiny holes into each and assembled a necklace, noting the stones felt like hard clay yet were surprisingly delicate, and that the drilling process emitted an unpleasant odor.
Instagram user Nicole Angemi shared a photo of a rosary made from a man’s own gallstones, noting that he used 53 real stones and fabricated six additional ones to complete the set. She praised the transformation, writing, “I LOVE this!!!” The story underscores how even the most unexpected bodily by‑products can become meaningful, personalized adornments.