Ringing in the Years...

I love jewelry. Most particularly, big rings and necklaces. My necklaces run the gamut from buffalo horn to demure pearls. I wanted today, however, to show you some of my favorite rings.


This is my wedding ring, my favorite ring, of course. Excy designed it. When he asked me what I wanted, I said "Diamonds!" I already had one vintage solitaire and three small stones from marriage #1. Excy said he wanted a ring to compliment "my long slender fingers." (What a sweetie). He had designed a jewelry shop the year before we met, so the owner, Marley, made the ring from Excy's sketches. The engagement part is yellow gold and fits into the white gold band like a puzzle. After a few years of fitting them together, we had them soldered. I told him that was symbolic, too! Nineteen years later, it looks as new as when he slipped it on my finger (this was taken last year).


I wish this photo had turned out better. This is rose-gold, and the stones are peridot, iolite, and amethyst-- green, blue, and red. Excy calls this my 'Buick' ring, b/c it reminds him of an old Buick's headlights. Talk about putting all your eggs in one basket -- I bought this a few months ago before I had signed a lucrative freelance contract. It was 40% off, though (which sealed the deal, but I was so smitten I would've just put it on lay-away). I had taken a vintage necklace in to be repaired, and the ring called to me from the cabinet. It has a pair of solitaire ear-rings to match. I seldom buy jewelry for myself, so that in itself is unusual, but I just fell in love with it...


This is a Greek wedding ring. It's bronze. I love the folded look. A friend gave it to me almost 20 years ago. Once when I was checking out at Wal-mart, the clerk complimented this ring and asked if it was made from a bullet casing. (I told her it was). The slim gold band on the other finger is a ring I never take off since it was given to me in 1985. It's from the 1930s.


I wear this ring when we go to the hospital for my tests and surgeries. It was given to me by the same friend who gave me the ring above. The stone is malachite - supposedly a healing stone. The bronze hand holding it reminds me to give myself Reiki and to 'breathe!'


This is a blue topaz. I love how unusual it is. Unfortunately it flew off my finger on a cold day and chipped -- but on a corner so it's not so noticeable.


My River Grandmother knew I loved pearls and turquoise, so this was willed to me. My grandfather, who died in the early 1940s,
had given it to her. He owned a family jewelry store, which is where it came from. Years ago, I thought I had lost it. I kept saying a prayer for it to find it's way back to me. Three months after it was 'lost' I shook out a plastic bag from the closet and out it came! What's amazing is I seldom save shopping bags.


The ring on my index finger was River Grandmother's, too. I always loved it, so she told me she'd give it to me. She forgot, but when she passed, my Aunt, her daughter, sent it to me. The other ring is the first piece of serious jewelry I ever bought myself, from my first real job, working in a retail clothes shop in my junior year of high school. I think I gravitated towards it because it resembles my Grandmom's ring, though I didn't think about it at the time. The opals have held up well for being soft stones. Grandmom's ring was given to her in the 1930s from Grandfather.
I have written out who my jewelry gets passed along to -- family members and friends who have admired it. I like knowing my favorite pieces will be worn when I'm gone...