{"id":12472,"date":"2011-09-23T00:01:29","date_gmt":"2011-09-23T04:01:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/?p=12472"},"modified":"2011-09-23T12:50:22","modified_gmt":"2011-09-23T16:50:22","slug":"new-rings-galore-daisies-skulls-and-punctuation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2011\/09\/new-rings-galore-daisies-skulls-and-punctuation\/","title":{"rendered":"New Rings Galore: Daisies, Skulls and Punctuation"},"content":{"rendered":"

I designed my 18K gold and diamond Mia scent locket in 2006.<\/p>\n

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Mia scent locket. Click to shop.<\/p><\/div>\n

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<\/a> 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!<\/p>\n

Anyway, the daisies made me think of Daisy Buchanan, The Great Gatsby<\/a><\/em> character. Daisy Buchanan made me think of Mia Farrow, who played Daisy in the 1974 movie version of The Great Gatsby<\/em><\/a>. Mia Farrow made me think of the iconic Vidal Sassoon haircut Mia got in 1967.<\/a><\/p>\n

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Mia Farrow. Click for source.<\/p><\/div>\n

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.”<\/p>\n

I put the same daisy on my Primavera ring and Dewdrop earrings.<\/p>\n

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Primavera ring. Click to shop.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Dewdrop earrings. Click to shop.<\/p><\/div>\n

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<\/a> was a Mia ring can pat yourselves on the back.)<\/p>\n

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Mia scent-locket ring, shown closed. Photo by SquareMoose. Click to shop.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Mia scent-locket ring, shown open. Photo by SquareMoose. Click to shop.<\/p><\/div>\n

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

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My ring gets to know Jen's bracelet.<\/p><\/div>\n

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

While I was converting the Mia necklace to a ring,\u00a0 I gave the same treatment to one of my Juana skull pendants. Here’s the original necklace.<\/p>\n

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Juana skull necklace. Click to shop.<\/p><\/div>\n

And here is the new ring.<\/p>\n

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Juana skull ring. Click to shop.<\/p><\/div>\n

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

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Sugar skulls. Click for photo source.<\/p><\/div>\n

I like to mash up my influences.<\/p>\n

I’ve also made two more rings from the original four-ring swear ring set<\/a> available for purchase on their own. (I’d already done the hashtag ring<\/a>.) No one had ever requested the exclamation point rings, so I didn’t plan to sell them separately. But when I offered supermodel Gisele<\/a> 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Exclamation point ring. Click to shop.<\/p><\/div>\n

While I was at it, I made the “at” ring available on its own. It’s $115.<\/p>\n

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"At sign" ring. Click to shop.<\/p><\/div>\n

You can browse my entire ring collection here<\/a>. If you want to order a custom ring, holla at me at wbjewelry at hotmail dot com (but read this<\/a> 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<\/a> recently requested a silver version of my 18K gold and lapis Nefertiti poison ring<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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The Nefertiti poison ring, customized for Elizabeth. Click to see it on my website.<\/p><\/div>\n

I think it looks good on her.<\/p>\n

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The custom Nefertiti on Elizabeth.<\/p><\/div>\n

You can see more of my custom work here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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I designed my 18K gold and diamond Mia scent locket in 2006. 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….<\/p>\n

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