“The “toothed vagina,” as it is translated from Latin, reflects an age-old trope of the female body as a site of danger and terror.

The vagina dentata manifests across history and culture in many forms: as a castrated and thus incomplete body in Freudian theory, as the ruler of the underworld in Māori stories, as the monstrous Scylla (Greek Mythology) who boasts vicious dogs below her waist—or In art history, Caravaggio’s beheaded Medusa or Courbet’s L’origin du monde, depicting a woman’s exposed vulva with her head out of sight, similarly represent moments of intense conflation where feminine embodiment is presented in uncertain and incomplete terms.

What is significant about these various representations—beyond the misogynism of the exoticized and demonized woman—is the fear associated with the unknowable body.

The toothed vagina signals a female body defamiliarized and made grotesque through subverting assumptions about its form—the polar opposite of traditional depictions of the female nude in the Western canon, from Venus to Olympia.

The one unifying factor among the vagina dentata’s various representations is the depiction of the body as a symbol of both fracture and confusion.”

—Mariana Fernandez, The Vagina Dentata; or Bodies in Pieces

My "Vagina Dentata" jewelry line focuses on the nuances of female anatomy and the tin solder medium. Tin solder is a much more affordable material than sterling silver or gold and is hypoallergenic. It also allows the ability to set unusual objects and materials.

This collection was made for people who appreciate the taboo and provocative themes as well as want a statement piece in an affordable price range.