My friends daughter lost her first tooth, so I set it into a ring for him :)

[Dennis]

No they are not waste products but shed body parts, which along with hair and nails must be disposed of safely in case some evil person uses them to cast a spell.

(Modern version: extracts your DNA) Dennis.

[Ebo Von Gaz]

I think that in its-self might prove the case in point of a deep seated phobia about interacting with peoples left over bits. A cultural symptom if you like.

[metalsmith]

Yes, there is definitely some evolutionary psychology effect over the long term subconscious, but I've collected sheep-skulls etc since I was a kid (not that I now have a mountain of them outside the front door or anything, but maybe my folks still have one or two from my childhood!)

For me it's definitely a recently acquired distaste I have. Perhaps it would be more rational where the tooth is rooted / bloody etc. but for "kid-pearls", there is nothing to raise the same reaction if we think about it sensibly.

[Ebo Von Gaz]

You can get desensitised to anything really, it's just a matter of repeated exposure to the same stimuli without it being directly associated with threat, your emotional reaction to the stimuli isn't a conscious choice.

It would be more irrational if you had a terrible experience and didn't associate the surrounding stimuli with the experience.

It's a brain-action shortcut designed to save your life, you wouldn't want to waste time having internal dialogue about threat situations and we have evolutionarily selected that out.

The end result being we have the capacity for apparently illogical reactions to situations and objects as we've made the world a bit more complex than our brains can keep up with, though in reality our reasons for these reactions are entirely rational, just on a deeper level.

I like the re-branding of "kid-pearls"! maybe "milk pearls" would work too, but then thinking about it I'm not too bothered about marketing this as it's such a personal thing for people I think I'd prefer it if people took the decision to have this sort of thing made off their own backs and not because I'd pushed a sales pitch at them.

I hope your dental woes are at an end now Metalsmith, or at least that you have a more positive experience in the future.

[Animalnutty]

You can get desensitised to anything really, it's just a matter of repeated exposure to the same stimuli without it being directly associated with threat, your emotional reaction to the stimuli isn't a conscious choice.

It would be more irrational if you had a terrible experience and didn't associate the surrounding stimuli with the experience.

It's a brain-action shortcut designed to save your life, you wouldn't want to waste time having internal dialogue about threat situations and we have evolutionarily selected that out.

The end result being we have the capacity for apparently illogical reactions to situations and objects as we've made the world a bit more complex than our brains can keep up with, though in reality our reasons for these reactions are entirely rational, just on a deeper level.

I like the re-branding of "kid-pearls"! maybe "milk pearls" would work too, but then thinking about it I'm not too bothered about marketing this as it's such a personal thing for people I think I'd prefer it if people took the decision to have this sort of thing made off their own backs and not because I'd pushed a sales pitch at them.

I hope your dental woes are at an end now Metalsmith, or at least that you have a more positive experience in the future.

It's not always quite that simple, sometimes the neurons in the brain have gone a bit wonky and no amount of desensitisation and counter conditioning or habituation are going to make something seem less scary, those situations are more rare though and generally medication will help in those instances - though obviously we are talking life impacting phobias there, not someone thinking something is a bit 'ooey'

I am not a fan of teeth, def my own experiences, however kids teeth are different and I love what has been done with this ring, it's beautiful. I have one of my dogs teefs that I have been meaning to do something with for a while, doubt it will look as beautiful as the ring here though

[metalsmith]

I hope your dental woes are at an end now Metalsmith, or at least that you have a more positive experience in the future.

Thanks Ebo, I'm working on it. I've been back since, on a couple of occasions now and things are a little better.

[Ebo Von Gaz]

Hi Animalnutty, you're probably right, I shouldn't have airily tried to sum up the neuropsychology of phobic behaviour in a few breezy sentences, it was bound to be inaccurate and I'm not qualified to do so anyway. I'm a doctor not a fighter pilot (Stargate reference )
I'd love to set some dog teeth, if you give it a go I'd be interested to see how you do it.

Glad to hear that metalsmith.

[LydiaNiz]

I still have my kids' first teeth and my wisdom to put into a necklace. I was going to use resin, but won't now I don't think!
I have been asked to use surgical staples and human hair (and horse hair) before. I'm much more squeamish about cut off hair (*shudders*) than anything else.
I've used puppy and kitten teeth a lot (we fostered for 2.5 years for an animal rescue, so were brushing up puppy teeth pretty much once a week!), particularly in (fairly gruesome) sculptural pieces for Shottle Bop.

[Ebo Von Gaz]

oh wow, I like your cat ring

[Didi]

I must admit to being conflicted about this one. I love the ring, by the way! I have my children's teeth, all gathered together in the bottom of my jewellery box. The idea of wearing them or making jewellery out of them gives me the creeps but at the same time, I couldn't possibly get rid of them. Therefore it would appear i both love and hate these little reminders of a time when I was the tooth fairy. Thank you for making me think.
Didi