091 odd vanity ware (ii)
"I can't stand accessories."
-Jules Asner
There is no end to Man's creativity. In this follow-up (read the first article here), I have uncovered many more fascinating, charming accessories I wouldn't have thought existed. From jewellery made out of clockwork gears, to necklaces that are really pictures produced by screen printing, each is quirky in its own way, and a head-turner by all means. All that leaves is your confidence and courage to wear such pieces. Impossibility is a mindset, outrageous a word for the unexplored.
I. clockwork party
Tick tock, tick tock- Greatly influenced by steampunk fiction, these curious creations are fashioned out of mechanical gears and fragments of old watch parts. They make for a stunning and arresting sight when mixed with charms, filigrees and vintage style lockets.
learningtofly Mechanical Bird Brooch
edmdesign Vintage 17 Jeweled Watch Movement Ring - Ornate Brass Scroll Setting;
Rivkasmom Steampunk Brooch Pin - Casey Jones
Mullanium Greyhound Pin
Matthew Moerman Ring (notice base is made up of a gear);
Rivkasmom Steampunk Necklace
edmdesigns Mens Vintage Swiss Jeweled Watch Movement Adjustable Ring;
JewelsofLuxury ELGIN Antique Steel Watch Face Adjustable Ring
edmdesigns Vintage Watch Movement Brooch Pin Hairclip Stunning Mesh Brass Bowtie
II. belt buckle rings/cuffs
Whoever said a belt must needs wrap around one's waist is a creature of poor imagination. Defying convention, the idea of miniature belts cinching and hugging one's finger or wrist is not new; in fact, such prototypes existed as early as the Victorian Age. Yet despite its ancient origins, a belt buckle ring or cuff in modern times still remains a striking, if not refreshing, piece of arm candy. Best of all are the ones that detach, slide, and hook on just like real belts do.
Vintage Hermes Sterling Silver Ring With Golden Buckle Decoration; Vintage Avon Buckle Ring
Vintage Floral Cuffs From Fayfey
now & then: Dior Gaucho Leather Bracelet; Antique Bates and Bacon Belt Buckle Style Hinged Bracelet, dated from Victorian times.
Gucci Double Buckle Cuff
SubconsiousLeathers By Hirotake Sakai Hand Stamping Rome Style Single Bangle
Miriam Nathan Buckle Up Ring; Nouveau Vintage Fresh Mesh Rings; Adore Vintage Buckled Ring; Walsh Brothers Gold Buckle Ring; Elizabeth Cole Buckle Ring; Eves Addiction Sterling Silver Buckle Ring
III. finger peekaboo
Walls have ears and hedges have eyes, watch out for these unexpected little spies.- Placed sentry at a finger, Mr and Mrs Face will sneak curious peeks at you, 'else they will stare with a ferocious intensity. Methinks these rings are at their spookiest when only the face is shown, with nary an evidence of hair, ear, neck or other body parts in sight. To arm yourself with another pair of eyes, you need not necessarily purchase them. Just print out the face of your desired little spy on a piece of glossy paper, varnish him, then stick it onto a suitable ring base, and voila! there you go with your very own 'face' ring.
Dommie Fornasetti Vintage Face Rings: Apathetic; Crying
Ring from Victoria Jomo, as seen on holymomo here.
Dillion Designs Watching Ring, Purrrrrrr Ring, Baby Love Ring, Nocturne Ring
IV. handscape architecture
Now you can let your urban planning fantasies go wild by building your own imaginary city across your hand, then carrying it like a snail everywhere you go. Surely there is thrice the fun when one can stack one's rings (especially silhouette rings) on and across fingers to create a scenario (how about Mr Fox ominously lurking behind trees, out of sight of White Rabbit?) or a landscape (hmmm skyscrapers here, trees there). If a fistful of rings is not to your taste, how about a single house or building prettily perched on top of your finger? The House Ring will make for a quirky, witty engagement ring. Slipping on the ring = yes to moving in with the significant other to our very own house = yes to his marriage proposal.
JDavisStudio House Ring; Commissioned Ring by Vicki Ambery-Smith
Commissioned Ring by Vicki Ambery-Smith
Soop The Enchanted Forest Ring Set
Jflume Picturings: series of photo rings showing views of
famous sites in Berlin, Paris, New York, Tokyo and Zurich.
Cynosure City Scape Rings; Zelda Beauchampet Handscape Cityscape Rings
V. other oddities
Dynomighty Particle Necklace
What you see before you may look merely like an ordinary string of silver beads, but nothing is quite what it seems, and this necklace in particular is actually made up of magnetic balls threaded together, as a result creating a very versatile piece of jewellery: by twisting and overlapping the 80 earth magnets, you get a different necklace (maybe even bracelet) everyday.
INN ITSNONAME Periodic Rings
Inspired by the periodic table, INN has created rings of silver, gold, and platinum with a catch. The face of each ring represents a grid from the periodic table. This comes complete with the element symbol (Ag for Silver, Au for Gold, Pt for Platinum), atomic number and atomic mass, all of which depend on the material of the ring in question.
Kiwon Wong Forms For The Collarbone
Kiwon Wong refers to her jewellery as modern architecture for the body, and probably the best representative of this is the aforeportrayed necklace from her Forms For The Body collection. Elegantly shaped to fit the curves of a collarbone and accentuated with pearls, this engineering marvel brings fine jewellery to another level.
Jana Brevick Wedding Set Series: Screwed, Jacked
In hardware, be it computers or carpentry, for two things to be joined together there must be compatibility. Needless to say, these are the very same issues encountered in love and marriages. These unique sets of wedding rings by Jana Brevick are a great reminder of how much one should give and take-and synchronise-in a relationship. They also provide for an alternative way of holding hands if your partner has sweaty palms.
Belleslettres The Gold Collection
"Hey pal, what's the time now... oh, you're not really wearing a watch. My God, it's a laminated watch you have there. With gold snaps to attach them round your wrist. What an irony.. a branded Cartel too."
Belleslettres' playful take on the branded watch ultimately makes a statement on the frivolity of wearing branded goods. The juxtaposition of cheap materials and expensive brands, together with the imitation on paper accomplished as easy as ABC, mocks and ridicules the thousands out there who pride themselves on their branded possessions.
Uli Rapp Screen Printed Diamonds
Uli Rapp's odd creations are made from textiles and rubber using-who would have guessed?-T shirt screen printing techniques. My favourites are the 'diamond' choker and layered necklace.
e.m. group Hybrid Ring
Not just any run-of-the-mill crystal ring, this strange looking adornment for the finger is a mixture of two different rings: a feminine gemstone ring on one hand, and a knobbly gothic twisted hole on the other. Perhaps the latter is what all beautiful extravagant rings look like, after they have been crashed and burnt... perhaps this is a ring rescued from a raging fire. If my line of thought is travelling in the right direction (for the website is in Japanese and I do not understand any of it), the designer behind this ring may very well have meant to juxtapose riches and death.
Ufo Products Acrylic Cube Diamond Rings; Mixko 1D Multifaceted Diamond Rings
Dear me, when it comes to diamonds I really do seem to like the 'fakes' instead of the real stones. Here are alternatives to the silhouette diamonds, which I had written about previously. Ufo Products has explored the idea further in depth by capturing the silhouette and facets of a diamond ring from 6, instead of 1, angles. These are contained in a cube. Mixko, on the other hand, has chosen instead to present only the top multifaceted face of the diamond in her rings made of bone china.
Hayley Mei Bad Cat Food Chain Necklace, It Lives To Kill Food Chain Necklace;
Ringmaster Complexity vs Simplicity Ring
Instead of merely throwing a few animal shapes together on a piece of chain (and be done with it), Hayley Mei adapts the concept of the food chain to her advantage in her beast-themed accessories.
-
Complexity (a golden mass) and Simplicity (in silver) attempt to outweight each other on this little pivot that is precariously perched on top of a finger (and which actually works, too).
Squarecircles Doilies Bangles & Rings
Say hello to the sterling and perspex cousins of the traditional lace. These pretty modern spin offs are girly without going overboard. In much the same concept as Danielle Maveal's Faux Diamond Rings, your Doilies rings may come with a middle layer of acrylic, just like dollops of jam or jelly sandwiched between two pieces of doily paper.
Helpless Romantic Flutter Bye Ring; Ashhilton Apple Of My Eye Sterling Ring
A mammoth-sized silhouette ring besotted with details and most of all, made of clear acrylic, is a wonder to behold. You never know quite what you are seeing-in this case a butterfly-until you come up close. And so the genius that is Helpless Romantic has done it again.. here they have achieved a ghostly-yet beautiful-effect with this mysterious ring.
-
Poke your finger through an apple.. and wear it. Sleeker, I feel, than the 1 inch wide red acrylic apple ring by 31 Corn Lane, Ashhilton embellishes his one dimensional silver apple with a golden leaf.
Evod Brooch Tags, Private Property Brooch
Remember the name tags in primary and secondary school? Here's a name tag for the well, name tag, aptly called 'BROOCH'. If horrid groping desperados are what you need to fend off, how about one that says 'PRIVATE PROPERTY'? It will not be difficult to diy these in a school bookshop with the help of your younger sibling or cousin. May I also suggest: a name tag that screams 'LIBRARIAN' will make a nifty addition to your brooch collection ;)
Kaia Design Patti La Bella Leather Necklace, Janis Hoplin Leather Necklace, Ultra Suede Ring
Fringes and frills take center stage in this range of jewellery fittingly named 'Fringe Benefits'. No doubt the necklaces thrown over a strapless LBD will make for a winning look (you will fool everyone into thinking they are part of your dress). My favourite in this collection is the ultra suede ring. Just like a butterfly, the strands of stray threads dangling from the ring will flutter and dance about gracefully as you move your hand.
Kate Cusack Zipper Pins
Flowers for you, Miss? These will not wither and of water, they require precious little. Just plant them on your jacket and watch them blossom. The corsages are made of zippers, bestowing on the pins an edge which is however softened by the folds into flower petals.
love By Geneine Honey "I Wish I Was A Real Boy/Girl" Brooch
Nothing brings back childhood nostalgia like these wooden figurines with hinged joints just like a puppet. "Hello," says the boy (here you give his left arm a jerk like a wave), "My name is Edmund. What is yours?" "I'm Xiaoqi," the girl replies, and on your cue she lifts her right hand to brush her fringe out of her face. "Hello Xiaoqi, shall we play?" Edmund asks. "Oh, I don't know," returns Xiaoqi, skipping her feet with a merry twinkle in her eyes.
Simon MacEwan Lost In The Woods Collection
Now you see them, now you don't. In this memorable collection, Simon MacEwan attempts to integrate animals with their natural (and man-made) habitats into seamless pieces of art.
-Jules Asner
There is no end to Man's creativity. In this follow-up (read the first article here), I have uncovered many more fascinating, charming accessories I wouldn't have thought existed. From jewellery made out of clockwork gears, to necklaces that are really pictures produced by screen printing, each is quirky in its own way, and a head-turner by all means. All that leaves is your confidence and courage to wear such pieces. Impossibility is a mindset, outrageous a word for the unexplored.
I. clockwork party
Tick tock, tick tock- Greatly influenced by steampunk fiction, these curious creations are fashioned out of mechanical gears and fragments of old watch parts. They make for a stunning and arresting sight when mixed with charms, filigrees and vintage style lockets.
learningtofly Mechanical Bird Brooch
edmdesign Vintage 17 Jeweled Watch Movement Ring - Ornate Brass Scroll Setting;
Rivkasmom Steampunk Brooch Pin - Casey Jones
Mullanium Greyhound Pin
Matthew Moerman Ring (notice base is made up of a gear);
Rivkasmom Steampunk Necklace
edmdesigns Mens Vintage Swiss Jeweled Watch Movement Adjustable Ring;
JewelsofLuxury ELGIN Antique Steel Watch Face Adjustable Ring
edmdesigns Vintage Watch Movement Brooch Pin Hairclip Stunning Mesh Brass Bowtie
II. belt buckle rings/cuffs
Whoever said a belt must needs wrap around one's waist is a creature of poor imagination. Defying convention, the idea of miniature belts cinching and hugging one's finger or wrist is not new; in fact, such prototypes existed as early as the Victorian Age. Yet despite its ancient origins, a belt buckle ring or cuff in modern times still remains a striking, if not refreshing, piece of arm candy. Best of all are the ones that detach, slide, and hook on just like real belts do.
Vintage Hermes Sterling Silver Ring With Golden Buckle Decoration; Vintage Avon Buckle Ring
Vintage Floral Cuffs From Fayfey
now & then: Dior Gaucho Leather Bracelet; Antique Bates and Bacon Belt Buckle Style Hinged Bracelet, dated from Victorian times.
Gucci Double Buckle Cuff
SubconsiousLeathers By Hirotake Sakai Hand Stamping Rome Style Single Bangle
Miriam Nathan Buckle Up Ring; Nouveau Vintage Fresh Mesh Rings; Adore Vintage Buckled Ring; Walsh Brothers Gold Buckle Ring; Elizabeth Cole Buckle Ring; Eves Addiction Sterling Silver Buckle Ring
III. finger peekaboo
Walls have ears and hedges have eyes, watch out for these unexpected little spies.- Placed sentry at a finger, Mr and Mrs Face will sneak curious peeks at you, 'else they will stare with a ferocious intensity. Methinks these rings are at their spookiest when only the face is shown, with nary an evidence of hair, ear, neck or other body parts in sight. To arm yourself with another pair of eyes, you need not necessarily purchase them. Just print out the face of your desired little spy on a piece of glossy paper, varnish him, then stick it onto a suitable ring base, and voila! there you go with your very own 'face' ring.
Dommie Fornasetti Vintage Face Rings: Apathetic; Crying
Ring from Victoria Jomo, as seen on holymomo here.
Dillion Designs Watching Ring, Purrrrrrr Ring, Baby Love Ring, Nocturne Ring
IV. handscape architecture
Now you can let your urban planning fantasies go wild by building your own imaginary city across your hand, then carrying it like a snail everywhere you go. Surely there is thrice the fun when one can stack one's rings (especially silhouette rings) on and across fingers to create a scenario (how about Mr Fox ominously lurking behind trees, out of sight of White Rabbit?) or a landscape (hmmm skyscrapers here, trees there). If a fistful of rings is not to your taste, how about a single house or building prettily perched on top of your finger? The House Ring will make for a quirky, witty engagement ring. Slipping on the ring = yes to moving in with the significant other to our very own house = yes to his marriage proposal.
JDavisStudio House Ring; Commissioned Ring by Vicki Ambery-Smith
Commissioned Ring by Vicki Ambery-Smith
Soop The Enchanted Forest Ring Set
Jflume Picturings: series of photo rings showing views of
famous sites in Berlin, Paris, New York, Tokyo and Zurich.
Cynosure City Scape Rings; Zelda Beauchampet Handscape Cityscape Rings
V. other oddities
Dynomighty Particle Necklace
What you see before you may look merely like an ordinary string of silver beads, but nothing is quite what it seems, and this necklace in particular is actually made up of magnetic balls threaded together, as a result creating a very versatile piece of jewellery: by twisting and overlapping the 80 earth magnets, you get a different necklace (maybe even bracelet) everyday.
INN ITSNONAME Periodic Rings
Inspired by the periodic table, INN has created rings of silver, gold, and platinum with a catch. The face of each ring represents a grid from the periodic table. This comes complete with the element symbol (Ag for Silver, Au for Gold, Pt for Platinum), atomic number and atomic mass, all of which depend on the material of the ring in question.
Kiwon Wong Forms For The Collarbone
Kiwon Wong refers to her jewellery as modern architecture for the body, and probably the best representative of this is the aforeportrayed necklace from her Forms For The Body collection. Elegantly shaped to fit the curves of a collarbone and accentuated with pearls, this engineering marvel brings fine jewellery to another level.
Jana Brevick Wedding Set Series: Screwed, Jacked
In hardware, be it computers or carpentry, for two things to be joined together there must be compatibility. Needless to say, these are the very same issues encountered in love and marriages. These unique sets of wedding rings by Jana Brevick are a great reminder of how much one should give and take-and synchronise-in a relationship. They also provide for an alternative way of holding hands if your partner has sweaty palms.
Belleslettres The Gold Collection
"Hey pal, what's the time now... oh, you're not really wearing a watch. My God, it's a laminated watch you have there. With gold snaps to attach them round your wrist. What an irony.. a branded Cartel too."
Belleslettres' playful take on the branded watch ultimately makes a statement on the frivolity of wearing branded goods. The juxtaposition of cheap materials and expensive brands, together with the imitation on paper accomplished as easy as ABC, mocks and ridicules the thousands out there who pride themselves on their branded possessions.
Uli Rapp Screen Printed Diamonds
Uli Rapp's odd creations are made from textiles and rubber using-who would have guessed?-T shirt screen printing techniques. My favourites are the 'diamond' choker and layered necklace.
e.m. group Hybrid Ring
Not just any run-of-the-mill crystal ring, this strange looking adornment for the finger is a mixture of two different rings: a feminine gemstone ring on one hand, and a knobbly gothic twisted hole on the other. Perhaps the latter is what all beautiful extravagant rings look like, after they have been crashed and burnt... perhaps this is a ring rescued from a raging fire. If my line of thought is travelling in the right direction (for the website is in Japanese and I do not understand any of it), the designer behind this ring may very well have meant to juxtapose riches and death.
Ufo Products Acrylic Cube Diamond Rings; Mixko 1D Multifaceted Diamond Rings
Dear me, when it comes to diamonds I really do seem to like the 'fakes' instead of the real stones. Here are alternatives to the silhouette diamonds, which I had written about previously. Ufo Products has explored the idea further in depth by capturing the silhouette and facets of a diamond ring from 6, instead of 1, angles. These are contained in a cube. Mixko, on the other hand, has chosen instead to present only the top multifaceted face of the diamond in her rings made of bone china.
Hayley Mei Bad Cat Food Chain Necklace, It Lives To Kill Food Chain Necklace;
Ringmaster Complexity vs Simplicity Ring
Instead of merely throwing a few animal shapes together on a piece of chain (and be done with it), Hayley Mei adapts the concept of the food chain to her advantage in her beast-themed accessories.
-
Complexity (a golden mass) and Simplicity (in silver) attempt to outweight each other on this little pivot that is precariously perched on top of a finger (and which actually works, too).
Squarecircles Doilies Bangles & Rings
Say hello to the sterling and perspex cousins of the traditional lace. These pretty modern spin offs are girly without going overboard. In much the same concept as Danielle Maveal's Faux Diamond Rings, your Doilies rings may come with a middle layer of acrylic, just like dollops of jam or jelly sandwiched between two pieces of doily paper.
Helpless Romantic Flutter Bye Ring; Ashhilton Apple Of My Eye Sterling Ring
A mammoth-sized silhouette ring besotted with details and most of all, made of clear acrylic, is a wonder to behold. You never know quite what you are seeing-in this case a butterfly-until you come up close. And so the genius that is Helpless Romantic has done it again.. here they have achieved a ghostly-yet beautiful-effect with this mysterious ring.
-
Poke your finger through an apple.. and wear it. Sleeker, I feel, than the 1 inch wide red acrylic apple ring by 31 Corn Lane, Ashhilton embellishes his one dimensional silver apple with a golden leaf.
Evod Brooch Tags, Private Property Brooch
Remember the name tags in primary and secondary school? Here's a name tag for the well, name tag, aptly called 'BROOCH'. If horrid groping desperados are what you need to fend off, how about one that says 'PRIVATE PROPERTY'? It will not be difficult to diy these in a school bookshop with the help of your younger sibling or cousin. May I also suggest: a name tag that screams 'LIBRARIAN' will make a nifty addition to your brooch collection ;)
Kaia Design Patti La Bella Leather Necklace, Janis Hoplin Leather Necklace, Ultra Suede Ring
Fringes and frills take center stage in this range of jewellery fittingly named 'Fringe Benefits'. No doubt the necklaces thrown over a strapless LBD will make for a winning look (you will fool everyone into thinking they are part of your dress). My favourite in this collection is the ultra suede ring. Just like a butterfly, the strands of stray threads dangling from the ring will flutter and dance about gracefully as you move your hand.
Kate Cusack Zipper Pins
Flowers for you, Miss? These will not wither and of water, they require precious little. Just plant them on your jacket and watch them blossom. The corsages are made of zippers, bestowing on the pins an edge which is however softened by the folds into flower petals.
love By Geneine Honey "I Wish I Was A Real Boy/Girl" Brooch
Nothing brings back childhood nostalgia like these wooden figurines with hinged joints just like a puppet. "Hello," says the boy (here you give his left arm a jerk like a wave), "My name is Edmund. What is yours?" "I'm Xiaoqi," the girl replies, and on your cue she lifts her right hand to brush her fringe out of her face. "Hello Xiaoqi, shall we play?" Edmund asks. "Oh, I don't know," returns Xiaoqi, skipping her feet with a merry twinkle in her eyes.
Simon MacEwan Lost In The Woods Collection
Now you see them, now you don't. In this memorable collection, Simon MacEwan attempts to integrate animals with their natural (and man-made) habitats into seamless pieces of art.