The Distress Between

Across opposite oceans, a South Island takahē, listed as Endangered, and an Atlantic puffin, listed as Vulnerable, face each other as if distance could be folded into a single frame. Their habitats are spectacular, alpine tussock basins and wind-cut sea cliffs, yet survival is not picturesque. It is measured in scarce chances: the puffin’s single egg, the takahē’s small clutch, and whether parents can keep feeding, defending, and returning before that chance is gone.

At the centre, a ruby stands for the egg, bright enough to feel like an alarm, and precious enough to demand care. Two beaks cradle it, a shared gesture of guarding. Around them, pierced voids make absence physical, set behind the birds like shortages they cannot reach. Fish-shaped openings represent prey that fails to reach colonies when ocean conditions shift and when commercial fishing exerts pressure. When food is scarce, chicks weaken, and a season can fail without any predator ever appearing. Tussock-shaped openings depict the takahē’s food and cover, reduced where introduced deer compete for the same snow tussocks.

Danger also comes with teeth. Puffin colonies can be vulnerable to invasive rats at breeding sites, and takahē can be killed by introduced stoats, predators both species did not evolve alongside, especially targeting eggs and chicks. Harsh winters and avalanches can also threaten takahē populations. The patinated copper ground bears the colour of weather and exposure, beautiful at a glance, harsh in reality, and the narrow gold rim reads as halo and memorial, a perimeter of reverence around what we treat as sacred, and what we mourn once it begins to vanish.

This pendant is not only an ornament. It asks the wearer to notice what is missing, and to recognise the shared responsibility that exists between two worlds.