If I had £1,000 right now... Monica Vinader

Good evening, folks. I've had a full Monday at work, I've just finished watching the last ever episode of Gossip Girl and I would like an imaginary £1,000 to spend. 

Of course, if you gave me £1,000 right now, it would go into my "dream ring fund", details of which I'll share another day, but for now let's play the game...

I don't want to go too far to spend my £1,000 so I'm going to make a single trip... to Monica Vinader. I adore her use of liquid-esque metals and stunning gemstones, as well as her combinations of lapis and yellow gold, and rose quartz with rose gold. Her designs are some of my favourites, so it only makes sense for my imaginary shop to take place there. It's just very tricky narrowing it down to £1,000!

So, MV has creating an amazing collection where you can mix and match various pendants to create a beautiful necklace. They have one of those nifty online tools to make your own and I've done just that. This stunner can be yours [or mine] for £575 [breakdown to follow]...

1. I chose the 32" sterling silver Lungo chain for £210. I like the little hoop that you can use to attach all of the pendants. 

2. I then added my favourite pendant, the rose gold vermeil Marie. It looks like an old Pirate coin and I love it. Of course I'll be mixing my metals for this necklace, it's what I do! £125. 

3. Then I added the Riva gold vermeil ingot for £105. This isn't my cup of tea on its own, but when added in this combination I think it's just stunning. 

4. Then the Ava small round pendant in sterling silver. A bargain at £40, and a well-balance addition, in my opinion.  

6. Then, last but not least, I added the siren bezel pendant in yellow gold vermeil with blue lapis [one of my favourites]. £95. 

Isn't this the perfect necklace?! Here are a couple of ready made ones from the MV website so get the creative juices flowing. 

Anyway, I've got a further £425 to spend, so I want some things to match this lovely piece... 

For £130 I would buy the Siren ring in 18ct rose gold vermeil with moonstone. I love the natural shape of the stone and the rose hue of the pink gold. Beautiful. 

That leaves me with £295... 

Which is exactly what these Siren medium drop earrings in rose gold vermeil and rose quartz cost. Handy, right?

I don't think my choices are too bad at all and that was really fun. I'll be spending more imaginary £1,000, I can assure you of that. I think I need to play the Lotto this weekend! 

Take care, thanks for reading. 

L. x

Sunday on Monday

Good evening. We had a beautiful day yesterday. It was 23 degrees in Sussex and everyone was out and about. We took a lovely trip into Lewes, East Sussex and had a look around the antique shops. We grabbed some lunch and listened to a man with a lute. Just when I thought it couldn't be more perfect, I stumbled across a stunning ring in an antique shop. I have what I refer to as sausage fingers. They are very long, but they are also big; I have big hands so even when I lose weight not much comes off my fingers [finger lipo, anyone?] so I was amazed to find something so close to what I've been looking for and in my size. I wanted to show you yesterday but with all the excitement my iPhone battery died and I was sans photographs until now. The guy in the shop thinks it's from the 1950s. It might not be that old, but I love it. I'm scared to get it appraised incase they say it's from 2001 or something, but it does have markings on the inside so I may do one day.

There were lots of lovely pieces of jewellery in the antique shops and I was recommended a jewellery auction which is held locally, which I'd love to check out one day. I also stopped off at Silverado which stocks lots of my favourite designers such as Alex Monroe, Alexis Dove, Dogeared, Dinny Hall, Monica Vinader, and more. Amazing stuff. I'd already bought my ring at this point otherwise I certainly could have been tempted by a new Alex Monroe necklace or bracelet! 

Here are some photos for you...

[Lunch]

[Lemon cake] 

[The Alexis Dove rings I went out wearing]

[The stunning 9 carat gold & Turquoise antique ring] 

[The ring on my jewellery stand]

[The windows at Silverado] 

[Lewes street art] 

Great, huh? The mezze and the Sicilian lemon cake were both amazing. The wild rose rings are from Alexis Dove and were a birthday present. The tiny one in yellow gold vermeil and the small in silver. Isn't my new ring amazing! And some fab displays from the windows in Silverado. 

Antique shops will be scoured more thoroughly from now. I've eagerly looked before but I now have the bug. Please comment and tell me about your antique shop finds. 

I'm going to say g'night, I think. I've had a tough day at work and no chance to discover anything new. I need to get on with doing some research this week into jewellery making / silversmithing courses.

Thanks for reading,

L. x

Edited to add: my new ring has some beautiful heart engravings down the arms but it's too dark to take such detailed pictures so I'll have to add those later. Coming soon! 

A blog is born (and I buy cat ring)...

>> This is cat ring. Made of sterling silver with a 1.5mm band. Cat ears included. Can be found HERE at Silverado.

So, what’s been happening? Well. On the 1st of June, 2013 (today) I started this awesome new website and blog. I also purchased a new piece of jewellery. Oh yes. Today managed to find a piece of jewellery to combine two of the things I love - jewellery and cats. Introducing THE CAT RING. When, where, how? And the story begins... 

We went to Lewes today for lunch (which actually turned into an early dinner) and I can’t go to Lewes without a visit to Silverado. I looked at lots of lovely things whilst there including pieces by my favourite jewellery designer Alex Monroe (you’ll see a lot about this brand on this blog). I also looked at and tried on rings by Monica Vinader, all of which were stunning. I can’t find pictures of all the rings I tried on but I’ll post pictures of some of them (images taken from Monica Vinader website).

This is the Siren Cocktail Ring. It’s big, it’s beautiful and it’s only £190. It is made from 18ct Gold plated vermeil on sterling silver with an organic shaped multifaceted Aqua Chalcedony. It milkiness of the stone was just beautiful and the ring had a lovely feel to it. Check out the website to have a look at it from different angles - I’m super fussy about settings and this one has a beautiful back. The band is approximately 3mm and comes in sizes K-T. 

This beauty is the Medina Facet Ring. Also made from 18ct Gold plated vermeil on sterling silver but this time set with a green gold quartz. £145. This setting has a closed back which makes the colour look more saturated. The gem stone comes out quite far which makes this ring quite a statement piece. They also had it in black onyx, but I can’t get that selection on the website - possibly sold out? The actual ring is has a nice hammered texture. 

Introducing... the stacking rings. These rings come in various sizes, shapes, and colours and are designed to be worn together in a stack. I held a few of these today (the ones pictured) and they are very delicate and so very sparkly. From left to right we have the Siren stacking set with citrine, then the Siren small stacking with white topaz, and another Siren stacking in Amethyst. Finally there is a stacked set - this particular set doesn’t do it for me, but only because I’m not a fan of wide bands. I also like a combination of metals when stacking. I can’t wait to add one of these to my collection. Here’s a link to the stacking ring collection. 

Whilst in Silverado I also checked out Alexis Dove’s latest pieces. There were four pieces that I actually held/tried on and they were all of a lovely weight and fantastic quality. As a result I’ve actually e-mailed Alexis to ask if she would consider making me a bespoke ring - I’ll keep you updated. Here are the things I looked at... 1) Foxy Ring. 2) Little Owl Ribbon Pendant. 3) Wild Rose Tiny Ring. 4) Wild Rose Large Ring. 

After our lunch/dinner we took a stroll around some of the antique shops in Lewes. I went in to look at some of the jewellery and I was pleasantly surprised. There were beautiful vintage cameos and art deco style rings, ranging from £6 to £165. The owner didn’t know what any of the stones were, which is a shame; I’ll just have to start learning my gems! 

I think that’s enough for my first entry, I don’t want to scare you all off. Come back soon for another entry! 

L. x