This Semen Jewelry Isn't Just About Sex

However, Booth was already known for incorporating various types of bodily matter into her pieces, so she was willing to give the unconventional request a shot. The first thing she did was experiment with a sample from her husband, which she dehydrated before grinding it down into a fine powder and mixing into a polymer sculpting clay. Given that it was a pretty novel project, she obviously decided to post the entire process to TikTok. Unsurprisingly, though, the video quickly went viral, going on to be viewed over six million times and creating intense demand for her “jizzy jewelry.” And the hype has only continued to grow since then.

“There's a massive variety of reasons why people want them,” Booth said, adding that customers range from members of the kink community to couples who want a physical representation of their relationship. But of course, there are also many customers who request pieces as “inside jokes,” which Booth now finds “pretty funny,” as she loves working with “open-minded” clients with “fun, creative ideas that teach [her] to make something cool.”

However, she admits that she was a little “frustrated” by this irreverent obsession with her jizzy jewelry at first. Though she initially started her business after a friend asked for a pair of penis-shaped earrings, Booth explained that her business evolved into something more than just dirty trinkets over time.

Most of her previous work that incorporated bodily fluids were objects carrying serious sentimental value, as the medium inherently imbues an object with a unique form of intimacy. And this more serious turn happened a few months later when another friend lost her son in an accident, which led to asking if she could “make something special to represent her son for her.”

“So she wanted me to incorporate his ashes, which I'd never done before,” Booth continued. “And the pieces turned out beautiful. But because I posted those, more people really began to hone in on the memorial aspect of what I do.”

She added: “And it’s been really rewarding to help people heal in this way.”

Additionally, Booth said her work can also be used to honor other significant life events, commemorating important moments like an umbilical cord symbolizing a birth or a lock of hair to always keep a loved one close.

Particularly nuanced is the jewelry she makes from breast milk, which can either hold “a lot of celebration” or come from a client who may be lactating while coping with a miscarriage or a stillborn child. “So they’re able to get it made into a piece,” Booth said, calling the process of “hearing the stories and seeing the reactions of people” the “most rewarding” part of what she does.

“It’s been really cool to bring that healing moment and help people with closure,” she went on to say, “while also helping others celebrate the important moments in life, like weddings, births and all that stuff.”

As such, Booth’s since come to change her mindset concerning the “giant joke” of her jizzy jewelry, now that she’s figured out that these pieces can also carry deep sentimental meaning, with some clients getting them “to represent their fertility journey, whether they struggled through fertility or are still struggling.” And after realizing this, she started to fully embrace the buzz surrounding her semen-centric pieces: “If jizzy jewelry is how people find out about what I do, then I’m totally okay with it.”

“Because they see that I do other stuff, where I'm able to help them through [something difficult],” Booth said. “They just happened to find me through another avenue. But that’s okay.”

Welcome to "Sex with Sandra," a column by Sandra Song about the ever-changing face of sexuality. Whether it be spotlight features on sex work activists, deep dives into hyper-niche fetishes, or overviews on current legislation and policy, "Sex with Sandra" is dedicated to examining some of the biggest sex-related discussions happening on the Internet right now.