Rereading Greek myths late at night, just as I reached the moment where Orpheus turned and Eurydice dissolved into moonlight, the wind chimes outside my window suddenly stirred. Staring at the trembling crystal beads, a thought emerged—what if that lyre string, which never reached the exit of the underworld, hadn’t snapped?
2:00 AM
Drew the first curve in my sketchbook. Not a full circle, but a sudden upward turn just before closing, like a melody abruptly startled into silence. This gap must remain—it is Orpheus’ eternal pause, the moment he looked back.
Daybreak
Experimenting with the texture of the silver wire. Not a polished mirror finish, but something veiled, as if steeped in the mist of the River Styx. Tried melting the silver with a trace of tin; the cooled surface indeed showed a greyish haze, like eyes veiled with tears.
Noon
Found three moonstones of varying sizes. The largest has natural inclusions like drifting clouds—this shall be Eurydice’s face just before she vanished. The smallest, almost transparent, will hang at the break, symbolizing the exit forever one step away.
Dusk
The most challenging task: how to make the bracelet produce music? Carved seven sound channels of varying depths inside the silver wire. As they brush against each other, they actually create overtones reminiscent of a lyre. Only the highest note remains slightly muted, like an aria cut short.
Now
The unfinished bracelet rests on black velvet, the moonstones glowing with a faint blue in the dim light. Suddenly feel it shouldn’t be polished to perfection—that misty silver sheen is the glimmer of the Styx, those tiny casting pores are the unspoken warnings, and the forever unreachable moonstone is perhaps the most beautiful part of every tragedy.
Suddenly understand—the ancient Greeks hid the answer in their myths all along: the most moving thing is never completion, but the eternally interrupted pursuit. Just like this never-closing bracelet, its beauty lies precisely in that small gap on the wearer’s wrist—holding all the unfinished songs.
Late into the Night
Engraved inside the bracelet the first note Orpheus taught humanity. When the wearer’s warmth reaches this symbol, will they, in some moment of turning, hear the faint tremor of a lyre string from two thousand years ago? Then the wind chimes sound again, like the lingering echo of the underworld gates reopening.
