Measurements:
7 x 4 Inches
Materials:
Green, clear, blue seed beads
Seaweed iridescent green, clear iridescent, and blue iridescent large twinkling beads
Faux Pearls
Repurposed Tatting for Edging
Blue Velvet
Shipping:
Free Domestic Shipping
$12 Flat International Shipping
Background: 
As these Rusalka play a fun little game of keep away, for this brief moment, they have been able to forget all of their troubles. 💀 
The Slavic folklore around the Rusalka is absolutely fascinating and heart-achingly beautiful.  A water spirit from Slavic folklore that eventually got tangled up with the idea of mermaids—but the original stories were much darker. 👻
In early Slavic belief, a Rusalka was the spirit of a young woman who died tragically, usually by drowning. That could mean suicide, betrayal, or abuse. She would return to the water where she died, not as a peaceful ghost, but as something restless. Some were said to lure people in and drown them, others just haunted the area with their sorrow. 💔
Later, Christian influence changed the narrative and painted them as even more dangerous or demonic, especially during the 18th and 19th centuries. The Rusalka started getting described more like a siren—beautiful, seductive, and deadly. 🩸
Eventually, they started to be associated with Western mermaids, especially in art and opera (like Dvořák’s Rusalka), but they’re really their own thing. Less seashell bra and more drowned forest energy.🧜‍♀️
This embroidery is kind of a loose interpretation—ghosty, floaty, maybe a little eerie—but I wanted it to feel like a forgotten lake myth stitched into velvet. 🌊