“For the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost” (Luke 19:10). 

The physicality of fleshly realms have a profound connection to the spirituality of heavenly realms. Within the Christian faith, before finding Christ the individual is described as being lost. My aims in this were multi-fold: communicating my dad being physically lost, but spiritually found; me, following his death, feeling lost, then found by God; and the process of grief, how crushing the weight of its loss, yet the eventual peace in knowing one day I will see my dad again. Throughout the ring set are visual elements that are in reference to my dad:  

33, ‘his number.’ 

A red stone, his favorite color and that of his home football team, the Huskers. 

JB, his initials. 

10.05, the day he went home to heaven.

The variety of ring band styles and textures, symbolic of the ebbs and flows of life, its mountains and valleys, albeit its promised circular, restoring pattern. Intentions backing the inclusion of Mother of Pearl were two-fold: spiritually, white is symbolic of being made new as a follower of Christ; and during the Victorian period, its presence was popular in mourning jewelry to serve as a reminder of the everlasting nature of one’s soul. 

These rings, a metal-forged memory, fusing the weight of that loss with the hopeful memory of being reunited one day.