When Melanie Koloditzky talks about breast milk, she sounds part scientist, part artist and entirely mom.

The Buenos Aires native, who moved to Israel shortly after marrying her teenage sweetheart, has spent the last five years transforming breast milk into handmade keepsake jewelry for mothers across Israel and all around the world. For her, each piece is far more than a necklace, ring or pendant. It is a way of enshrining a fleeting chapter of life.

“I often say that I’m not only creating jewelry,” she says. “I’m preserving moments that can never be repeated.”

Koloditzky grew up in a secular Jewish family in Argentina with traditional roots. A twin with an older sister, she met the boy who would eventually become her husband when she was just 15 years old.

“As we grew up together, we shared the same dream: building our future in Israel,” she recalls.

After marrying, the couple celebrated with family and friends in what felt, she says, like both a wedding and a farewell party. Two weeks later, they boarded a plane and moved to Israel.

The move was exhilarating but not easy.

“I didn’t speak Hebrew other than ‘shalom,’ ‘todah’ and ‘mazel tov,’” she says, using the popular phrases for greeting, thanks and congratulations.

She spent five months studying at an immersive Hebrew language course on a kibbutz in northern Israel before gradually building a life for herself. Along the way, she worked a variety of jobs, including........

© The Times of Israel