The Pixiu Bracelet

The object

• 8 mm black obsidian, cut and polished rather than dyed. Obsidian is glass, so it holds light differently from the opaque stones it usually sits beside.
• A solid brass pixiu finished by PVD vacuum plating — a thinner, harder coat than the dipped plating that goes patchy in a season.
• Doubled elastic cord, knotted by hand with the knot tucked inside a bead.
• Arrives with a card explaining what the pixiu is in Chinese tradition, and what it is not.

Materials and craft

Obsidian is volcanic glass: cut and polished, undyed, and sorted against the pinhole bubbles that give away cheap material under a loupe. The pixiu is solid brass rather than zinc alloy, finished by PVD vacuum plating instead of the dipped electroplating that is standard in this price band — the difference does not show in week one, it shows in month four. Strung on doubled elastic cord, hand-knotted, knot tucked inside a bead.

What it is in the tradition

The pixiu (貔貅) is a winged, chimeric beast from Chinese folklore, carved with no opening on the underside — that single detail is what the stories are built on, and why it became an emblem of keeping rather than of getting. It is traditionally worn facing outward for the same reason. Black is the colour of water in the five-element system: north, winter, depth and reserve. We repeat what the tradition says about the figure, and stop there.

Anything we make is jewelry: an object to wear, and a reminder of an intention you set yourself. We describe its materials, its craft, and what it has meant in Chinese tradition. We do not describe it as something that changes financial outcomes.

How to wear it

The questions every shop in this category leaves unanswered: which wrist, which way round, when to take it off, and what the customs actually are.

1. 01

   Which wrist, and which way it faces

   The custom is the left wrist with the beast facing outward, away from the body and up the arm. The reasoning inside the folklore is literal: the pixiu is described as taking things in and not letting them out, so it is set facing the world rather than the wearer. That is how the figure has been worn for a long time. It is a convention of wearing, not a mechanism.

2. 02

   Getting it on without killing the cord

   Roll it over the knuckles rather than pulling it open, and hold the brass rather than the beads while you do it. The doubled cord is there to survive a few years of this; it survives longer if the strain goes into the roll and not the stretch.

3. 03

   When people take it off

   Shower, pool, gym, sleep. Plated brass sits on the outside of the wrist where it meets doorframes and desk edges, and chlorine, salt water and hand sanitiser are all harder on a finish than daily wear is.

4. 04

   The customs people ask about

   Three come up constantly: may other people handle it, may it be worn to a funeral or into a bathroom, and how it should be cleansed. The customary answers are that a pixiu piece is usually kept to one wearer, usually taken off for both, and usually rinsed under running water or set out overnight under a full moon from time to time. Every one of those is an observance people keep, described here as an observance.

Care

Obsidian is glass and will chip on a hard edge; the brass rides on the outside of the wrist, where doorframes live. Take it off for the shower, the pool and the gym, since chlorine and salt are harder on a plated finish than a year of ordinary wear. Wipe it with a dry cloth. Keep it out of an ultrasonic cleaner.