FINGERFOOD

Looking for some new jewelry to wear is part of getting ready for the holiday season. So is planning what to eat. With these FINGERFOOD-rings your problems are easily solved! The ultimate party multi-tasking solution is sold by FRED and designed by Ken Goldman (what's in a name!). I love the serene white plastic plate with a little curly rim for extra glamour. No Christmas dinner is complete without using these funny rings first! They are a new design, but FRED sells lots more jewelry like these COOL JEWELS, 2-CARAT CUP and KEY RING. All of FRED's stuff is so much fun, I know my Christmas wish-list just got lots bigger!

The Furry ring

An amazing piece of jewelry this week! It is this stunning Furry ring, a simple shape with a soft furry center completely out of gold. It has been created by Giovanni Corvaja in 2001. The ring is an impressive piece and it is an important step towards a his new series named the Golden Fleece collection.

Giovanni Corvaja started this new collection to satisfy his need to search for the mythological Golden Fleece. Instead of keeping to look for it, he decided to actually make it himself. After working very hard at his life's philosophy for 12 years, he has now succeeded.
He regards his success to have made the Golden Fleece as a journey, not as a destination. He managed to make great pieces of jewelry on that journey, like the Furry ring. I am quite anxious to touch it, since the gold really looks like fur! I am so glad he kept on doing research to get to a totally new level of golden fur. The pieces of the Golden Fleece collection are said to be strikingly soft to touch. Caressing one would give you the amazing sensation of touching a kitten. The Golden Fleece itself also looks much finer. These are unexpected, unbelievable differences between the Furry ring and the pieces of the new collection.

Until the 27th of December the Furry ring can be seen at Galerie Bijouterie Jungblut in Luxemburg (city), Luxemburg; as a part of the exhibition Jacqueline Ryan and Giovanni Corvaja.

In the spring of 2009 the preliminary collection of 5 pieces, also containing a ring; will be presented to the public for the first time in Munich, Germany at a special exhibition of Modern Masters. So in three months you can expect an update of this collection (with photographs) on this blog!

Much much more about this incredible Golden Fleece and its Italian creator can be read here.

ear positioners

This weeks’ piece is a jewel made for rabbits and not humans. These Ear Positioners are part of a series of 'animal accessories' and show a human’s interpretation of what an animal might need or want.

At first, I was attracted by the way this work looks, it is incredibly well-made. Then I was repelled by its function, why would you force a bunny's ear into a certain position? They made me wonder in which situation a rabbit could possibly need or want to wear them. It might be fashionable for rabbits to keep their ears stuck in that position at all times, or it can be used as a helmet that goes with a suit of armor. So a way a bunny could benefit from wearing the “Ear Positioners” is, when people(!) made it go to war, and it had to fight opponents armed with swords (yes, having two boys really influences my thoughts!). In both ways, humans take control of a fictional rabbits’ life!

This interpretation of the way humans manipulate the world around us to suit our needs, is the work of Miel-Margarita Paredes, from Portland OR, USA. She uses the animal form in a humoristic way to engage the viewer and point out the sheer absurdity of our interactions with the world around us. Whether these serve the greater good of humanity or are done out of mere entertainment.

Storica

For this weeks post I have found a beautiful contemporary piece of history (Storica is Italian and means historical in English) in this neckpiece, by Anna Fornari. It is made out of 18 karat gold and sealing wax. It touches subjects like identity and identification and made me think of soldiers wearing their name-tags around their neck.

Identification-symbols have been worn by men since ancient history. Signet rings are a good example of that. They have been used troughout history to make waxed seals and are a representative of historical-symbolical evolution. Anna Fornari, has been researching and working with seals and their traditions. In this piece, the Italian artist has translated history in a contemporary way, the history of mankind resting on the shoulders of today's people.

Unfortunately I won't be able to see this well-designed neckpiece for real, but it is presented at the Alternatives Gallery in Rome, Italy, as part of the exhibit 'I segni dell’identità' starting on the 22nd of November 2008!
Found thanks to Klimt02.

Where's my gum

What if you're happily chewing on a piece of gum and all of a sudden it drops out of your mouth? You might think, whaa, where did it go?! But not Jiska Hartog and Michiel Henneman or the jewellery design duo 'Wanted Jewellery'; they consider it as a new piece of jewellery! They even like the idea so much that they reproduced the gum in a nice bubblegummie-pink color of plastic and turned it into a brooch. To a lot of people it might be a bit over the top, and that is exactly what they are interested in. They like to play with the expectations of the whole society of what jewellery really is. To them, not only can jewellery be an expression of wealth, it can also show your taste, and that is taken very literally in this case! Personally, I love the idea and the way it looks. Although as a hard core minty fresh gum-addict it also feels like a bit of a waste, I think I'd rather keep it where it belongs, in my mouth!

Michiel Henneman and Jiska Hartog have started 'Wanted Jewellery' in March 2007 and are based in The Netherlands.

Super Karin alert ring

Super Karin saves the world and still manages to look fabulous!

Yippee, I'm on a family trip to Minnesota, USA. An ultimate chance to take a look at local jewelry! Karin Jacobson is a jewelry designer from Minneapolis, who uses sterling silver and lab-grown (less expensive) gems to be able to focus on form and make her designs affordable, this in combination with beauty, craftmanship and great design which is what fine jewellery has always been about. As also with this ring, play is a central theme in her work. Her inspiration comes from science fiction, comic books, mechanical toys and Japanese animation. This ring is called Bubbler and is part of  a series named 'Cocktail Rings'. On the first page of her comic book- catalog, she (as a comic figure called Super Karin) uses it as an alert ring! I thought it was so much fun, I had to share it with you! This comic book is what makes her jewelry stand out.

PS this blog seems to be all about rings, but that is not my intention! There will be other pieces, who knows maybe next time??

Crystal ice ring

mold

crystal ice ring

this was 1 ring, the water left-over from one ring

A  beautiful reaction to our mass consumer society is made by Carolien Van Den Hole in the shape of crystal ice rings. She an textile- and productdesigner from Belgium, who searches for authenticity, uniqueness, experience and emotional satisfaction that lasts in her work. So instead of selling rings, she sells the mold for you to make your own crystal ice ring. Wear it straight out of the freezer for only about one minute until it melts. The sensation would be a cherishable moment on a hot summers day. Her design also makes a great gift. That way you have the choice of giving the mold so the receiver can make as many rings as she/he likes or giving your own homemade crystal ice ring to be worn by the receiver for just that special moment.

Last week I went to the opening of Carolien Van Den Hole's exhibition E.erste H.ulp B.ij O.ntwerpen (First Aid With Design) at the Beyond Fashion Gallery in Antwerp, Belgium. The rings and their molds are on display in a stylish little white freezer with a glass door.

Vote for this ring

This is the wonderful The love inside #5 ring by Colleen Baran. She is a multidisciplinary artist (working in jewellery, photography and book-work) from Canada. She exhibits her work internationally and has been published in North America. Her work is based on a love of language pattern and form, as show well in in her The love story #5 ring. The ring is individually handmade of sterling silver and mylar paper that can be cut but not torn. It has bold, subtle and brave declarations of love hidden within. You can write your own little secret notes for your sweetheart to carry with them. Just slide the little story inside the ring..... It is one of a series of rings that in some way or another carry a love story and it is my personal favorite! The love inside #5 is a simple and sleek structure that has a hidden romantic side to it. This makes wearing (and giving) the ring incredibly personal without showing it off in the design.

The love inside #5 ring is currently nominated in the Cooper-Hewitt Peoples Design Award! Go and click to vote for The love inside #5 at: http://peoplesdesignaward.cooper-hewitt.org/2008/nominee/1592

You can vote until tuesday October 21st, so hurry!

Have a great weekend!