Who here among us does not gift themselves at the end of each year? When I have taken inventory of all that I have given, each gift chosen ever-so-thoughtfully, it is time to turn that very same loving care to myself. What better way to ring in the New Year than with a ring? While rings seem to be associated with romance and men, I love the idea of giving a special something to my best friend—to me, too.
I spent a few days after Christmas in New York, and found my way to Maryam Nassir Zadeh on the Lower East Side and bought a Samma brass chainlink ring. It's my grown-up way of buying souvenir t-shirts—a ring for every place I visit, every event in my life. I can mentally walk through the past thirty years without consuming much space and the pictures in my head remain a mystery to everyone but me. I know the Robert Lee Morris concave ring conjures the Bahamas when I first met my husband (I also lost one to the tide that week). The vintage Pierre Cardin ring hearkens back to afternoons spent going through my mother-in-law's closet when we were first getting to really know each other apart from the connection we both had to her son/my husband. The jade band from China is purely my father when he would travel to Beijing in the early 1970s for business and brought me tiny momentos of a country he adored.
Also, artist jewelry is way superior to the mass-produced drek you find in malls. Your special memento shouldn't be the same as a million other girls. Most cities have what it called a "jewelry gallery" stocked with groups of handmade pieces by people whose passions are all about metalsmithing. The St. Louis Art Fair in Clayton each year is an amazing resource for beautiful things you buy right from the studio artist. Janice Ho from Hannibal, Mo. made a tiny microscope ring with even tinier enamel 'slides' that you could view under the lens. The idea that I get it from Janice and slip it on to my own finger makes it seem like some sort of delightful secret that only she and I share. I don't know, something about them all being cold until I put them on and warm them makes them more than just rings—they almost have a life of their own.
Note to Janice... when you make your way back to Clayton this year, you don't even need to put that ring in a box. I'll just slip it on my finger and no matter where I end up, that microscope will always make me think of St. Louis.
Madeline Meyerowitz is the owner of enokiworld.com, a website specializing in vintage designer clothing.
