Tag Archives: ring

Good Fortune

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Did you ever see the show, The Riches?  It didn’t last very long but, in my opinion, it should have.  It had a group of great actors including the hilarious Eddie Izzard and the talented Minnie Driver.  In short, the show is about a family of grifters who find themselves impersonating members of a wealthy family.  For a time, it appears that they are going to get away with it and Minnie Driver’s character muses, “What are we going to do with all this good fortune?  What are we going to do with all this good fortune?”  Under the circumstances, it’s a funny question for the character to ask but, really, it’s a good question for most of us.

Make no mistake, I’m a lucky lady.  I have a wonderful husband; entertaining, loyal friends and family; and beautiful pets.  I had the opportunity to be educated and I have a good job.  I have a roof over my head in the best city in the world, if I do say so myself.  Lucky.  Fortunate.  Still, I spend a lot of time thinking about what I am going after next and what my perfect life would look like.  One of the things that comes to my mind in my afternoon reveries is how awesome it would be to be a full time, successful jewelry designer.  Almost immediately, I start to bargain with the Universe.  “Dear Universe, if I were ever able to live that life, I promise to give back more.  I promise to do something with all that good fortune.”

I went looking for an example of a jewelry designer who has turned personal good fortune into fortune for others.  There are many great examples of corporate giving from jewelry companies and of jewelry artists supporting their favorite charities.  But, in my search, it didn’t take long to find Joan Hornig and her strikingly charitable style.  As her website states:

Her model of giving 100% of the profits on each piece to the purchaser’s charity of choice challenges women to use beauty and fashion in a new way.

Joan’s jewelry is meant to be noticed and talked about as it carries the all important message that philanthropy is beautiful, personal and worth promoting.

Joan Hornig

Joan has turned her obvious good taste and knack for design into a vehicle for good.  Harvard and Columbia educated, Joan knew what to do with all her good fortune.

While we’re at it, let us not forget that Joan Hornig can help her customers support deserving charities because she makes desirable jewelry.  I have to admit that I was not previously aware of Hornig’s work but it is truly something to behold.  She is confident and assertive in her approach to modern design.  There are also lots of nice, little touches that one notices the more that one looks.  Note, for example, the clasp on the daring garnet necklace.

We should all be grateful to Joan Hornig for her good works and beautiful design.

Clean, Simple Design by Chinchar and Maloney

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If you’re into making things, you might understand the principle that a complicated or fancy design can camouflage a number of ills.  You can always make it look like you meant to do that.  Simple and clean is so much more difficult because the mistakes have no place to hide.  Making simple design attractive and interesting can take some work.  It is for such reasons that I was struck by the clean and attractive work offered by Colin and Marian of the Etsy store, Chinchar and Maloney.

Silver Pendant with Tanzanite

I love the color of tanzanite or, perhaps, I should say colors — it changes so much in different light.

Green Grey Diamond Ring

Another fine example of a gorgeous stone that gets to take center stage in a nice clean design.

Comes in Waves - molded fine silver wave pendant

Finally, it’s almost hard to believe that this is a piece of metal because it is so fluid.

Such nice work that reminds one of what good design can do to showcase beautiful materials and masterful metal work.

Herkimer and Rivet Ring

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As I have mentioned, I am in the process of learning metal work and to make jewelry.  I’ve been taking classes at Scintillant Studio for about a year.  Scintillant, which is in the Mission neighborhood of San Francisco, is run by the fascinating Adam Clark.  I began my education at Scintillant with a beginner’s class taught by Aimee Golant, who is incredibly talented and a great teacher.  Since then, I’ve taken Adam’s class, which is largely an independent study style, about three times.  I am pretty sure that there isn’t anything that Adam doesn’t know — seriously, bring up just about any topic.

This is my most recently completed project from Scintillant:

The stone is a Herkimer diamond.  I cut the band and the prongs out of a continuous sheet of silver and the prongs were folded up to hold the stone.  The band is closed with a copper rivet.  It was a challenge but allowed me to practice some new skills — like riveting.  But, it was a ton of fun to make and I’ve enjoyed wearing it.

Beautiful New Work by Polly Wales

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Polly Wales already has an impressive resume and a stunning collection of work but there are still more inventive pieces on the way.  Courtesy of the sales staff at Polly Wales, here’s a sneak peek at Polly’s diamond collection to be launched in January 2012.

Truly unbelievable.  Unique, stylish, and heirloom quality.

Polly uses a casting method, where stones are cast directly into the metal.  She allows the method to really speak in her pieces.  That is a skill in itself — to know when to not try and exert control.  Casting this way creates a unique effect that does more than just set the stone in the piece.  The setting becomes more of a design element and it marries with the stone and changes it.  This, for example:

This piece, from her Crystal Collection, is currently available on Polly’s website and it shows how this casting method, when unleashed, allows the stones and the metal to somehow become more blended — more one.  Every piece is the frozen moment in time when the metal and the stones met.  It is not a method for use by a timid jewelry designer.  It’s bold and a huge design risk that, for Polly Wales, pays off over and over again.

On her website, Polly describes her work this way, “a disregard for the traditional, juxtaposed with a love of the ancient and classical jewellery.”  I think that comes through clearly in her designs.  The words that come to mind for me are “modern artifacts.”  It’s the past reflected in a new way.

Repurposed Toy Jewelry

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I remember pop beads from when I was a child.  Even then, I was interested in anything that I could turn into jewelry.  For the uninitiated, pop beads look like this:

It’s obvious, I suppose, but one side fits into the other and you can make a beaded chain of sorts.  They get their name from the sound they make joining and disengaging.

Clever jewelry designer Olivia de Soira has played upon the suggestiveness of this shape by pairing two of them together in this ring:

Ring by Olivia de Soria

I think that this piece clearly borders art jewelry.  I think it shows a lot of humor and inventiveness.  In addition to that, though, there is more than just some repurposing going here.  There is the subversion of toy jewelry for children and turning it into jewelry for adults or, depending on how you view the piece, adult jewelry.

Addendum:  Olivia informed me that she’ll be phasing out her website but you can purchase her jewelry through her Etsy store, DeSoriaDeSign.

A Piece of the Night Sky

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Gemstones are wondrous and varied.  Isn’t it funny that the earth produces these amazing things then we take them, assign them value and, quite frequently, carry them around with us.

Far and away, my favorite stone is lapis lazuli.  I especially love really dark lapis with a lot of pyrite because it resembles the night sky.  Gorgeous lapis has appeared in jewelry across the aesthetic spectrum for much of human history.  Today, jewelry designers, of all stripes, are still inspired by the dark stone, constantly finding new and inventive uses for it.  I don’t know much about the lapidary arts, but it is my understanding that it is a soft stone and, perhaps, that’s why it can be carved with such detail.

Carved Lapis - Chinese Qing Dynasty

Here, are some fine and varied example of what this versatile stone can do in jewelry.

Antique Lapis Brooch - for sale by Adin

This brooch is available on Adin.  Just look at that color.  It sings against the platinum and diamonds.  It just looks like the ancient treasure it is.

Lapis Lazuli Crinkle Earrings - by Mark Kaplan

These lapis stones are paired with stellar metal work by Mark Kaplan and are available through Etsy.  This is actually my favorite cut of lapis — round and flush in its setting.  I have a small pendant made with a piece of lapis just like these and it is among my favorite jewelry possessions.  I found it a bin of small bits and pieces in Chinatown here in San Francisco and paid $5 — but that’s a story for another time.

Unexpected Wild Flower - by Jean-D

Finally, this incredible piece by Jean-D can be found in Etsy store MonBedo.  It has a piece of fine lapis, which, as the description of this item explains, is lapis without any pyrite.  The ring shows how lapis can also capture an organic shape.  The setting is so striking and bold and does the beautiful piece of stone justice.  As an aside, I also happen to really like that Jean-D posted some detailed comments about the design of this piece.  It’s nice to hear from a designer about how a piece came to be.

Negative Space to a New Level

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The use of negative space should be a consideration in jewelry design.  When earrings hang from ears — suspended in space — how are they interacting with that space around them?  How does the shape of a pendant appear against the backdrop of skin.  Filigree, of course, a style that has appeared throughout the ages, is all about making shapes out of negative space.

Lorena Martinez-Neustadt brings negative space to a new level with her line of jewelry (available on Etsy in the shop Gemagenta).

The first two pieces below, designed to be two-dimensional renderings of three-dimensional things, like faceted stones, are so clever.  Lorena made the wise choice to leave some of the piece undisturbed.  Perhaps, to suggest a glare off of the stone or even just to let our imagination do some of the work.  Either way, it strikes me as well-considered design element.  In a way, by leaving some of it “blank,” she is using negative space in two ways.  (Does that equal a positive?)  Those little omissions are also what set Lorena’s “gem” pieces apart from some other similar concepts that have shown up in the mass produced market in the last few years.

Faceted Brilliant Pendant - by Lorena Martinez-Neustadt

Faceted Emerald Pendant - by Lorena Martinez-Neustadt

Beyond these gem pieces, Lorena’s collection has a consistent use of negative space that feels fresh.  I especially love these:

Lingerie Elongated Pendant - by Lorena Martinez-Neustadt

Lingerie Ring - by Lorena Martinez-Neustadt

The designs are lacy, yet clean.  Inspired by lace and lingerie without overdoing the concept.  The pieces are flattering against the skin and appear to be very wearable.

Alternative Materials by Cla Contemporary

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When making jewelry, there are no artistic talents that goes to waste.  You can bring skills from all different disciplines to the jeweler’s bench and find them useful. Chelsey, who is the creative force behind the Etsy store Cla Contemporary, proves that point by adding her own handmade ceramics to her pieces.

Ceramics in jewelry can get mixed results.  It can be earthy but it can also be clunky and messy.  Cla Contemporary is something else in entirely.  It’s true to it’s name.  It’s modern and clean.

I think the ring is sculptural perfection.  It’s a nice, clean design but it is not short on personality.

A Favorite Purchase from Adin

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If one is a jewelry enthusiast like I am, you may have had the experience of cruising the internet for something that captures your attention — something that you have never seen before.  One day, back in 2001, I was on such a search and found this piece:

Antique Ring from Adin

To this day, I have never seen anything like it.  It wasn’t expensive as the stones are glass and there isn’t much weight to it.  But, it is an antique from the 1800s with white and yellow gold and the stones are nicely flush-set.  I wear it more days than not and, for as long as I have had it, I still find myself puzzling over it’s design.  It’s sort of in the shape of a signet ring but not really.  If the stones were arranged vertically, that would be more expected — but, no, not here.   It’s small, delicate and light but the bold, unusual design makes it seem bigger somehow.

Beyond the enjoyment that this ring has given me over the years, the experience of buying it, also gave me one of my favorite places on the internet to drool over gorgeous antique gems — Adin.  The real brick-and-mortar Adin is in Belgium and I dream of going there someday.  But, in the meantime, I can entertain myself for hours with the stunning website that has hundreds of antique pieces that, for my eye, appear to be fairly priced.  There is also an incredible range in price in their merchandise.  This piece, at least, also came with a certificate of authenticity.

While I am talking up Adin, allow me to share a nice story that happened to occur in the worst of circumstances and that has given this ring meaning beyond a frivolous internet purchase.  I purchased my ring online a few days before that fateful day in September 2001.  I had been communicating back and forth with a customer service representative about the re-sizing of the ring due to the different sizing scales between America and Europe.  Then, the world changed.  I was no where near harm’s way but the Adin customer service rep was thoughtful enough to send me a brief email to say that she hoped that my loved ones and I were all safe.  I was really struck by the kindness of that — especially, since everything seemed so unhinged.

I don’t know if Adin sent out such an email to all their American customers or if it was simply a personal message from a kind person.  But, it doesn’t matter to me either way.  When I look at this ring, it reminds me of connections among strangers and how the world is so small, really, and how much small kindnesses can mean and how they endure.  It reminds to behave accordingly.

Antique Ring from Adin

Personal collection highlight – mid-century gothic

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mid-century gothic ring - photo by rjxp

To me, this piece is both bread and cake.  This is a cocktail ring of my mother’s from the 1950’s.  A cocktail ring is the epitome of personal adornment snack food — unnecessary and purely decorative.  But, as it was my mother’s, it is among my prized possessions and it carries with it shadows of a time in my mother’s life before I was born … a time that, when I imagine it, is black and white and rose-scented.

The ring itself was made with an incredible attention to detail.  I cannot find any legible maker’s mark but it says it is sterling silver and it must have been cast.  A jeweler has told me that the stones are glass or rhinestone and they sit in closed seats that are visible from the back.

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I describe the style of this ring as “mid-century gothic.”  For me, it is an attractive style because I find it so evocative.  I find that I have a large mental archive of images that are examples of that style.  I see jewel tones, pearl buttons, heavy candle holders, and those lace doilies that women had to wear on their heads when they went to mass.  I have looked up that term, which I sort of thought I made up, and it seems that there other items out there described with the words “mid-century gothic” although not necessarily in that order.  A google image search brings up quite a few products — largely home decor items such as these:

Perhaps, a little piece of jewelry can be so strongly evocative of a style for me because this was the living room of the house in which I grew up.  (Note: This photo was taken in 2009.)

Yeah, just let that sink in …