Archive for the ‘Jewelry’ Category

Contest: Crowning Achievement

Monday, March 26th, 2012

It’s contest time!

The wonderful people at USABride have offered up a great prize for all you lovely brides out there: one lucky winner will get her choice of one of four fabulous tiaras/headbands (value $129.95 each) for free!

The winner will choose between the Nicolette:

the Lucia:

the Vibrant:

and the Mariana:

Any of these would put the finishing, sparkly touch to a gorgeous wedding look!

Win It!

To enter the contest, simply leave a comment on this entry telling how you would use your tiara/headband after the wedding. I didn’t actually wear one on my wedding day, but if I had, I would totally still wear it whilst vacuuming the carpets.

For additional entries, you can do the following:

1: Score one additional entry when you add Manolo for the Brides to your blogroll, or let us know we’re already on your blogroll so we can link back to you.

2: Score two additional entries when you like USABride on Facebook or follow them on Twitter and let us know.

3: Score three additional entries when you Tweet about this entry or write it up on your blog.

All entries must be in by midnight PDT on thursday, March 29. The winner will be announced on friday, March 30 in this very blog.

Best of luck to all of you, and let the games begin!

Perfect For ‘The Kiss’

Thursday, March 15th, 2012

Kiddies, I hurt my dominant index finger last night in a bizarre restaurant accident. Typing is tough today.

And so instead of something profound, I leave you with this awesome Klimtesque wedding band by Alex Sepkus:

Not To Coin a Phrase Or Anything

Tuesday, March 13th, 2012


When it comes to choosing wedding rings, there are a lot of decisions to be made: what material, who will and won’t wear one, to sparkle or not to sparkle… and the list goes on.

But one groom took the question even further: he decided to make them himself.

David Curtis and Jessica Stonex fell in love while working with the homeless through their church. They’d known one another from childhood, but finding they shared values and priorities sealed the deal.

One of those values? Deliberate simplicity. So when they decided to marry, they didn’t want to go out and buy fancy gold rings or involve diamonds. But they did want rings to symbolize their union. What to do? David remembered a story he’d heard about a friends’ grandfather who hammered his wife’s wedding ring from a silver coin. David and Jessica knew they’d found their answer.

David set out to find real silver coins, which meant they had to be minted before 1964, the year alloys started being added. The pure silver would be more malleable and thus better for jewelry making by hand.

A Ben Franklin fifty cent piece was perfect for Jessica’s finger, and David found a silver dollar would suit his hand nicely.

Then came the painstaking work of hammering them out into rings.

“You can’t hit it too hard,” he said. “You have to be slow and steady, and make small taps. It’s kind of a metaphor for marriage.”

In the end, though, David and Jessica have a pair of unique rings that reflect not only their beliefs (the words ‘Liberty’ and ‘In God We Trust’ can be read inside the bands), but their unique bond as well.

As Jessica says:

“Every time I look at my ring, I think, ‘Man, my husband spent 20 hours making this ring to bless me with.’ ”

What more can you say after that?

What’s Up at the Huff Po Wedding Page

Thursday, March 1st, 2012


Sometimes it’s fun to take a gander at the weddings page at the Huffington Post just to see what’s being said there. The information and advice often ranges from the painfully trite to the downright deranged, but there’s also an occasional nugget of bridal goodness to be mined.

For instance, that photo at the top of this entry? That’s Len Kendall. When he decided to pop the big question, he went to Buzzfeed and posted this meme of himself asking Katie the Big Question… and invited his friends to create images in a similar vein to support him. The images include everything from Tim Tebow to Angelina Jolie’s right leg to… stuff I don’t recognize, but still find amusing. About the only one I didn’t see was Princess Beatrice’s hat from last spring’s royal wedding. Then again, I’m guessing the images at Huff Po don’t include every single effort.

BTW, the lady said yes.
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Ride the Wave Form

Friday, February 3rd, 2012


I believe I’ve mentioned before that Mr Twistie is a musician. He’s also a tremendously talented recording engineer. I love to watch him work. One of the things I get a huge kick out of is seeing the wave forms different instruments and voices make as he records things.

Well, jeweler Sakurako Shimizu has taken this idea and run with it. Those rings above? Are Shimizu’s work. The design is the wave form of someone saying ‘I love you.’ The rings come in silver, platinum, or 18k yellow, white, or pink gold. If you request it specially, they can also be made in 14k yellow gold. Oh, and if you’d rather it say something other than I love you, yeah, you can get a different (short) word or phrase instead. Each piece is custom and uses the wave form of the person you choose.

I don’t know about you, but I think this is one of the most romantic ideas in jewelry I’ve seen in a very long time.

In fact, if I come into some money soon, I’d love to have one made for me of Mr. Twistie’s voice. I may not need a new wedding ring, but another symbol of his love is always welcome.

What Once Was Lost….

Friday, January 27th, 2012


Wedding rings are precious, but they’re also small fiddly things it’s surprisingly easy to lose.

The couple shown above are Lena and Ola Pahlsson. One day in 1995, while Lena was in the midst of a marathon baking session for Christmas, she lost her ring.

The couple searched over and over. When they remodeled the kitchen several years later, they even looked under and behind appliances and under the floorboards. No luck.

Sixteen years after the ring disappeared, Lena was in the vegetable garden pulling up some delicious carrots, when one of them proved to have something surprising on it: her long-lost wedding ring!

This is just one of seven amazing stories of lost and found wedding and engagement rings in an article over at Neatorama. Go read them for a combination good laugh and glowy feeling of things coming right in the end. Oh, and to get a couple good ideas of what never to do with your wedding ring!

LOVE/HATE: Is It Funny?

Monday, January 2nd, 2012


(Illustration via Strange Things My Imagination Might Do)

So. This ad. Okay, I get where they came up with the joke. All the same… I can’t help thinking it sounds an awful lot like the kinds of ‘jokes’ I’ve so often heard about sexual assault.

Oversensitive? I’m inclined to think not. All the same, I’d like to know what all of you think.

Clearly, I HATE this one. How do you feel? Why?