"Pearly saints" Postcard

For their very existence, pearls depend on grit. They are an act of resistance, of stubborn growth. After an irritant enters their shell, molluscs secrete layers of stuff that turns into nacre (mother-of-pearl), encasing the “intruder” in an iridscent prison. Don’t let their lustre fool you: pearls have seen some shit. And they have thrived because of it.

In the Middle Ages, pearls symbolized the soul, purity, virginity, and power. Fast forward to the late 1870s: Henry Croft, an orphan street-sweeper in London, festooned his suit with pearl buttons, becoming the first Pearly King, working-class royalty whose members dedicate themselves to raising money for charity. Croft needed a way to get people’s attention when raising money for charity. The pearl’s lustre did just that. Ethical aesthetics. Politicized radiance.

This is the lineage we point to, with this postcard. Miniatures from MxComan’s cover art for the Trans and Genderqueer Subjects volume - a non-binary saint in the roundel + their trans colleague in the rectangular frame - take centre stage here. May their lustrous light shine on us all.

✞ 1 x postcard

Obsessed with this design? (We are too.) Both saints are available as individual designs on the collection’s sticker sheet.