Jeweler Ben Baller recently expressed regret for not capitalizing on a piece of jewelry he created for Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West. He made a polycarbonate Jesus piece in collaboration with the clothing line he once had, Pastelle. He claimed that he and Ye would have made $100 million if he didn’t fumble the bag, according to Complex.
Baller took to X, formerly known as Twitter, with a video clip and photos
of Ye and his girlfriend at the time, Amber Rose, wearing the Jesus pieces. He mentioned that the pieces were made 15 years ago and that they would have “crushed the game” if they had made the right moves, even stating that there were plans “to make porcelain and jade ones.”In the clip, he shows the red Jesus piece and says, “You know, there ain’t a lot of things that I’ve been upset about in my life, in my career as a jeweler. This is probably one of the biggest failures of a $100 million bag, straight up. This right here could have made Pastelle, me, Kanye a hundred million. I’m still sick about this sh**. And I’m sure if somebody would f**kin’ offer me, I don’t know, $10,000, $20,000 for this thing, I would never f**kin’ sell it. This is just disappointing.”
Baller includes a picture of Ye standing with Rose while sporting the Jesus piece. In another photograph, Rose walks with the red Jesus piece dangling from her neck.
Complex recalled the media outlet’s conversation with Baller in 2018 about the Jesus piece.
“Ye had some really super-dope ideas,” Baller said. “He wanted to make a [Jesus piece] in porcelain and in jade. He wanted to make some really cool sh**. If a jeweler now were to make Jesus pieces in jade it would change the game. And remember, this was almost ten years ago.”