Inside the Artroom No. 005 - Meet the maker behind the Snake Bite (Næddre) Dropper Earrings
March 25, 2026
Some shapes resist you.
Over the years, Alchemy has returned to the serpent many times - winding, coiling, swallowing its own tail. Each design found its angle. The snake’s head, though, remained untouched. Isolated, stripped of its body, it produces a silhouette that simply does not compel. The form collapses. The energy dies.
An open mouth is another matter.
“For some reason I had an image in my mind of an Art Nouveau doorway formed from the gaping mouth of a serpent,” Stuart recalls. “Something that felt as though it ought to exist in Paris or Vienna. I searched for it but never found a source.”
What Stuart imagined may never have existed in stone or iron. But the act of searching for it unlocked something. The open jaws - that threshold of fang and darkness - created exactly the jewellery form the closed head never could. Sinuous, architectural, alive with the organic curves of the Art Nouveau tradition. The shape was always there. It simply required the right moment of danger to reveal itself.
An Ophidian Portent
The ancient world understood the serpent as a creature of thresholds. Not merely dangerous, but liminal - a presence that marks the boundary between safety and ruin, between the living world and what lies beyond it.
In Greek myth, Eurydice was the wife of the musician Orpheus. He played joyful songs while his bride danced. But Aristaeus, son of Apollo, saw her and gave chase. Fleeing across open ground, Eurydice stepped on a viper hidden in the grass, was bitten, and died soon after.
Heartbroken, Orpheus descended into the Underworld to reclaim her. He played for Hades and Persephone, and they listened. He was granted one condition: walk back to the upper world, and do not look back at Eurydice until you have crossed the threshold.
Tragically, as they neared the surface - as light became visible - Orpheus glanced back. Eurydice vanished forever.
The viper did not kill Eurydice with malice. It simply was what it was, coiled in the grass, ancient and indifferent. The doom was not in the creature. It was in the moment of contact.
The Making
Sculpted and cast by hand in fine English pewter, the Snake Bite (Næddre) Dropper Earrings are the work of Stuart and the Alchemy artisan team in England. Each serpent head is finished with surgical steel ear wires, and the eyes set with Austrian crystal in Siam red - a deep, burning red that holds the light as the piece moves.
The name “Næddre” draws from the Old English word for serpent, the same root that gave the English language the word “adder.” A quiet etymology, but one that feels fitting for a piece that carries this much age in its design.
An ophidian portent of sudden doom, worn close to the face. Designed for those who understand that the most beautiful things often carry a sting.
Inside the Artroom is a series exploring the makers, myths, and methods behind Alchemy’s handcrafted gothic jewelry. Each piece tells a story. This is where those stories begin.