Wendy Brandes Jewelry Blog

Never Is the Next New Thing

New Rings Galore: Daisies, Skulls and Punctuation

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I designed my 18K gold and diamond Mia scent locket in 2006.

Mia scent locket. Click to shop.

A scent locket isn’t a new concept. (It’s designed so the wearer can put solid perfume in the locket; the openings in the locket allow the fragrance to waft out.) It’s easy to find vintage scent lockets as well as modern-day costume-jewelry versions. Some of them have floral themes. I did my version while I was having a Pop Art moment. I was desperate to do something with a ’60s-looking daisy. I figured the Pop daisies might be a new twist on a classic, floral, scent-locket design. Three years later, J. Crew had a similar thought about daisies and did a cute ring, though I don’t think theirs opened up. For all I know, a thousand designers have done a daisy scent locket. Sometimes it’s not about having the only one. It’s about having the most beautiful one!

Anyway, the daisies made me think of Daisy Buchanan, The Great Gatsby character. Daisy Buchanan made me think of Mia Farrow, who played Daisy in the 1974 movie version of The Great Gatsby. Mia Farrow made me think of the iconic Vidal Sassoon haircut Mia got in 1967.

Mia Farrow. Click for source.

The date of Mia’s haircut brought me back to the era that inspired my daisies, and that’s why I named my locket “Mia.”

I put the same daisy on my Primavera ring and Dewdrop earrings.

Primavera ring. Click to shop.

Dewdrop earrings. Click to shop.

But what I really wanted was a Mia scent-locket ring. I thought about it all these years, but felt compelled to put my resources into fresh designs. When I went through inventory recently and realized I had two Mia locket necklaces, I decided to turn one into a ring. (Those of you who guessed that this sneak peek was a Mia ring can pat yourselves on the back.)

Mia scent-locket ring, shown closed. Photo by SquareMoose. Click to shop.

Mia scent-locket ring, shown open. Photo by SquareMoose. Click to shop.

The first time I wore it, I was amused to discover that my gorgeous friend Jen was wearing a complementary costume-jewelry bracelet. Different flowers but the effect was the same.

My ring gets to know Jen's bracelet.

What can I say? Clusters of tiny flowers aren’t the most original jewelry idea, but I still love my design.

While I was converting the Mia necklace to a ring,  I gave the same treatment to one of my Juana skull pendants. Here’s the original necklace.

Juana skull necklace. Click to shop.

And here is the new ring.

Juana skull ring. Click to shop.

While my Juana skull pieces were inspired by a 16th-century royal lady of Spain, their cartoonish look owes more to Mexico’s Day of the Dead sugar skulls.

Sugar skulls. Click for photo source.

I like to mash up my influences.

I’ve also made two more rings from the original four-ring swear ring set available for purchase on their own. (I’d already done the hashtag ring.) No one had ever requested the exclamation point rings, so I didn’t plan to sell them separately. But when I offered supermodel Gisele her pick of rings after she wore the whole set for a recent shoot, she took two exclamation points. A supermodel is never wrong, so now you can all have sterling-silver exclamation point rings. They’re $55, which is pretty inexpensive for my locally made, limited-edition pieces.

Exclamation point ring. Click to shop.

While I was at it, I made the “at” ring available on its own. It’s $115.

"At sign" ring. Click to shop.

You can browse my entire ring collection here. If you want to order a custom ring, holla at me at wbjewelry at hotmail dot com (but read this first so you know what to expect). I can create a new ring design from scratch or customize existing designs. As an example of the latter, my gorgeous friend Elizabeth Wurtzel recently requested a silver version of my 18K gold and lapis Nefertiti poison ring.

The Nefertiti poison ring, customized for Elizabeth. Click to see it on my website.

I think it looks good on her.

The custom Nefertiti on Elizabeth.

You can see more of my custom work here.

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Comments

  2. SO weird! As a I was reading about the scent locket before even have scrolled down the page, I was thinking of the creepy one that the elderly neighbor gives to Mia Farrow’s character in Rosemary’s Baby. (Remember? The stinky ‘devil’ one?) As I read on, low and behold there is a pic of her for an entirely different reason! Odd. Beautiful things, per usual…

  9. Hi there!! Oh I so love the Juana skull ring, its my favourite here- the Mia locket scent ring is just so pretty and intricate, a real stunning piece too, very well done xxx

  10. Lead us not into temptation, or was that supposed to be lead us *into* temptation? So many beauties. I love the @ ring and the dew drop earrings are the stuff of dreams.

  11. Love!! I put in the two exclamation points in honor Giselle being smart enough to take two of your pieces. Your designs are beautiful as always.

  13. Miss J LOVES the new Juana ring.

    Mia Farrow had a scent locket given to her by Ruth Gordon in Rosemary’s Baby. It held (methinks) Tannis Root, a fictitious and devilish herb.

  17. Wow! The daisy locket is absolutely beautiful. I have never seen anything like it. Adding perfume in the locket is a nice touch. I have to say that the Primavera ring is my fav.