Aimee Koran experimented with making beads from her own breast milk while nursing her second child. They are various shades of yellow, brown, and white, based on the milk’s freshness and its fat and nutrient content. Anyone who has breastfed a child, or tried to, understands the preciousness of breast milk, sometimes described as “liquid gold.” Reflecting the role of touch in the intimate process of breastfeeding and forming a tangible reminder of an otherwise invisible material led to the creation of these prayer beads. They are a testament to the work that goes into growing and raising infants, a labor of care that is often heavily gendered, socially devalued, and unpaid. It has historically been unwelcome in the art world, too, unless idealized as in portraits of the Virgin Mary.

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