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The day is here! I’ve been quietly working away on these for 6 months. When I first started these, it felt like Christmas was so far away and HERE WE ARE!
These rings are made of 14k and feature and assortment of precious gems like diamonds, sapphires, rubies, emeralds, spinels, and topaz.
I will be posting one a day to celebrate the 12 days of Christmas (early)! They will all be posted to my website on December 13th but if you see one you like, you can call dibs on it beforehand!
I asked Stef if she wanted to be part of Metamorphosis Redo because I made her a pendant during my Game of Thrones phase and figured she might be over it (I was)!
She asked for either a necklace to represent her daughters or some stackable rings to wear with her wedding band. I was going to go with the pendant because stackable rings seemed so…basic. But despite being basic, they are just so darn wearable and practical! So that’s what I went with.
She sent me photos of plain stackable rings but I decided to throw in some pizazz by adding a hammered yellow gold and twisted silver. Figured it would give her ring stack more definition!
I’m hoping to sneak in one more Metamorphosis Redo this year! Fingers crossed I don’t run out of time!
I started following Jen Pistor on Instagram and quickly realized that her fashion philosophy would make her a perfect fit for my Metamorphosis project! She writes and shares about ethical and sustainable fashion (among other things - check our her blog here). And…it turns out that she lives just up the street from me!
I scheduled Jen’s metamorphosis for September, and shortly after, she reposted the image in the gallery below (from @fashiontakesaction) that reads: Thrifted. Borrowed. Swapped. Vintage. Used. Handed Down. Reused. #SecondHandSeptember
It’s like the stars were aligning for this specific metamorphosis project!
My metamorphosis project involves using old jewellery that we no longer wear because it is broken, outdated, etc. I find ways to reuse items as is if possible and if not, I melt them down and turn them into something new.
Although I can provide people with new materials, I really love melting down people’s old jewellery. Not only is it fascinating to see what kind of jewellery people bring me, sustainable business practices’ are really important to me and using recycled materials is a huge part of that.
Jen brought me an assortment of her old silver jewellery and mentioned wanting some stackable bands. Here’s the thing: they may seem simple to design, but when you’re making something for someone who is an advocate of slow fashion, you really want to make something that isn’t just your average stackable band.
(Sidenote: Slow fashion is the movement of designing, creating, and buying garments for quality and longevity. It encourages slower production schedules, fair wages, lower carbon footprints, and (ideally) zero waste.)
Getting a sense of Jen’s style was pretty easy thanks to the deep creep I did on her instagram (go to her IG here) and blog. I have a new appreciation for the colour yellow thanks to Jen and how she wears and styles the colour! As such, I decided to add 14k yellow gold to the three stackable silver rings I chose to make her.
One band has five mini-hydrangeas in 14k yellow gold to represent each member of her family (hydrangeas are her favourite flower that make her think of her grandmother). They aren’t symmetrically placed nor are they perfect. At first this made me nervous but nothing in life is perfect which is what makes things imperfectly perfect. When I told Jen this, she added that she is an advocate of body positivity and loving ourselves in however shape we come so this ring actually really speaks to her! How perfect!
The second band at first just seemed like a design that would pair well with the hydrangea-band, but as I made it I got thinking about all the dualities in life but especially those of motherhood. We may be mum’s, but we are still women with individual personalities outside of what motherhood requires and it’s important for us not to forget that. We can't pour from an empty cup so it's important to take care of ourselves.
I set the third band with 12 citrines (yellow! And also her birthstones) because mum’s are always on…24 stones would have been more accurate to represent 24 hours in a day but I was thinking of a 12 hour clock.
They can be worn together or alone and pair well with most outfits.
I have learned so much about the fashion industry from following Jen on Instagram and I would encourage you to do the same. We can all do a little more to help create a more sustainable world and education is the first step!
Stackable Rings
Other than mentioning that she'd like to acquire stackable rings, Irene said she'd like something that represents her family. The amethyst (yellow gold) and peridot (white gold) rings represent her daughters and one day she has the option of giving them their respective rings. The diamond ring is for her husband since the stone is from a ring he gave her. And the twisted wire ring represents Irene: both colour metals bringing everything together!
Stackable Knuckle Rings
Based on what Alyson told me she liked, I came up with a theme for her metamorphosis: The Secret Garden.
She also said she liked knuckle rings. I realize that they have nothing to do with The Secret Garden, but I wanted to find a way to make it work. I set aside everything from her jewellery that fit my theme and got to it.
Originally I had planned to make three rings but then decided to only make the top two in the photo. A few days before the reveal, I decided to make the third one, which ended up being a huge pain in the ass. Long story short: my dad had to help me fix a part that I had ruined while trying to fix another part that I had ruined, five minutes before Alyson showed up for the reveal.
Despite the stress and mad rush, they got done! I love them and and I hope she does too!
1. I used this entire ring as the top of the gold knuckle ring (middle in photo above).
2. I used the diamonds from this ring for the top of the bottom silver ring above.
3. I used the vessel from the rose quartz pendant as the top of the second silver ring (top in photo above).
Stackable rings
Tess said she would like some stackable rings and I wanted to make some. Perfect!
I knew I wanted to use parts of her old rings as the bands for the new rings and some of the stones she already had as well. But, I also had it in my head that I wanted to use birthstones and Tessa’s are diamond, ruby, and sapphire: a combination I wasn’t sure Tessa would be a fan of.
The issue with birthstones is that people don’t like them and/or the combination their family stones make. What most people don’t realize is that there are alternate birthstones for every month. For example, April’s traditional birthstone is diamond, but one alternative is opal, which Tessa conveniently had.
For July, instead of using a ruby, I used black onyx. For September, instead of sapphire, I used moonstone (which Tessa also already had).
As for the bangles (featured below), they were a last minute addition. I figured it would be better to give her a stack of bangles she might wear instead of giving her back a little bag with random items she wasn’t wearing at all (i.e. dolphin earrings, a soccer ball pendant….).
