{"product_id":"first-sign-opal-rat-zodiac-necklace","title":"First Sign — African Opal Rat Zodiac Necklace","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe first sign is not a winner. It is an hour.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEveryone tells the same story about how the rat came first. The Jade Emperor called a race, the rat rode across the river on the ox's back, jumped off at the bank and took the finish line by a nose.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt is a good story. It is also much younger than the thing it explains.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn 1975, in Hubei province, archaeologists opened the tomb of a minor Qin official and found bamboo slips buried with him — administrative texts, legal texts, and an almanac. Third century BC. The animals are already there, already matched to the twelve earthly branches, already in this order. The race was attached afterwards, the way people attach stories to systems they have inherited and no longer remember building.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the older system the rat is not a competitor. It is a position. Zi — the first branch, the double hour around midnight. Eleven at night until one in the morning. The hinge.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe first sign is not a winner. It is an hour.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt is the hour when one day has finished and the next one has not admitted it yet. Nothing has started. Everything is about to. That is a stranger and better thing to wear than a race.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003chr\u003e\u003cp\u003eI kept this one dark deliberately. The circle is blackened, the rat is gold, and the opal sits near the top like the one light somebody left on.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe metal is solid 925 sterling silver. The gold is a plated finish over that silver and the dark sections are a black finish over the same silver — plating is a surface, it wears with time, the silver underneath does not.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePosted to you tracked. 5–10 days to the UK.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTwelve pieces were modelled separately for this series — no shared body, no swapped heads — which is most of where the cost sits.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eMaterials\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNatural opal — 4 mm round\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNano black and white cubic zirconia accent stones — laboratory-made, not mined\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e925 sterling silver, gold plated, with a black finish on the dark sections\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ePendant 25.49 mm across, on a box chain\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eFree UK delivery · 5–10 days\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eWorn in China for over two thousand years as the opening of the cycle. Some people feel something when they put a sign on. Some don't. Either way it is an old idea and it is accurately made.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Asi8","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49044056703146,"sku":"ASI8-OPA-016","price":189.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0719\/3313\/2970\/files\/16-1.jpg?v=1786612304","url":"https:\/\/asieight.com\/products\/first-sign-opal-rat-zodiac-necklace","provider":"Asi8","version":"1.0","type":"link"}