What Does Blood Jewelry Look Like?

That's a question we get asked a lot. I've been teaching this art for over ten years now and a big part of a keepsake jeweller's job is managing expectations. Blood varies in natural colour throughout its life and unless you're part Vulcan, it's going to be some shade of reddish brown.

Blood Colours

Blood is red. “If you get a cut,” says Dr. Lichtin, “red is the only color you’re going to see come out.” - from What Color Is Your Blood.

Blood Jewelry Colors

The blood we use in jewelry is darkest brown so it looks black. We have a few options from classic blood (just the flecks mixed with clear resin) like this:

Most of our clients like the blood to be mixed with colours. We usually grind the blood into a powder and mix it with our dragon's blood red colourway (gallery at the end of this blog)

Or can leave it as black flecks like this

Some clients choose a colour other than red, such as this customer who asked for me to get a colour similar to her eyes (she was very happy with the result) but please remember we can never get an exact match to any shade. That's because we're working in resin, adding our own pigments, monitor colours can vary, the colour changes depending on the setting or a stone shape and also the inclusions we're adding

The next photo is pink resin with pink lab opal, and the blood has tinted the pink into a deep hue that's stunning.

Manging Expectations

If a client were to order and say that their item must match another item we own, we would always decline the order. We have had several clients send us photos of translucent red stones (glass, cubic zirconia, ruby etc) and ask for the colour to be matched but this is impossible with resin. Although we can tint the resin and perhaps get close, once we add blood this will change the colour anyway. The size of the stone or poured area makes a difference, as does the material (silver, gold, black ceramic etc). We will send proof photos when able but we will never guarantee a match. 

Our Terms of Service (known as terms and conditions or T's and C's) state: 

"3.7 Artistic Discretion Elements (ashes etc), colour, engraving etc. will be placed at the artists' discretion unless previously agreed and requested on the order when ordering; in this case, we will do our best but still retain artistic discretion ... (c) colours of elements will vary greatly, photos on the website are of other clients' elements and your piece will look very different even with clear resin. Galleries are available for guidance (i)Pieces will never look the exact same as those on our website because they are all handmade, the materials we use can change and and the elements you send in vary vastly. For example, there are many colour variations in cremation ashes including white, grey, black and brown etc, our resin sparkle mixes are handmade, and the light levels used in our photography may vary, as may screen monitor colours ... (d) our resin colours (sparkle mixes) may vary slightly as batches are mixed from time to time using artistic discretion. Each colour will be unique depending on your elements (see 3.7c). ... (g) monitor colours will vary and lighting and saturation levels in photography so photos may not be an exact match to the products either 3.8 Proof photos We sometimes make several resin pieces (blanks) and may send proof photos for your consideration where possible. We will set the best piece in metal, taking your preference into account. If you choose (for example) cabochon 2 from 3 pictured cabochon blanks, we will try our best to use that one. However, when setting, we will use artistic discretion... Proof photos are low quality images meant as a guide as a goodwill gesture and are not part of the service. They are an extra we may provide when able... We are not required to provide a proof photo"

dragon's blood red colourway
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