Ring-a-ding-ding

Till very recently, my ring collection was unremarkable, if not nonexistent. Years of piano/string instrument practice yielded unsightly callouses and as a result a desire to shift attention away from my awkwardly ginormous hands (blame it on the small wrists), which meant rare use of nail polish and finger adornments. However! Discovery of this adorable jewelry shop in Harajuku-average 300 Yen for each piece of jewelry, which is about 3 bucks or 25 HKD-revealed that there was much more to the wonderful world of rings than breakup-rendered-meaningless diamond bands or butch class rings.



Three of my fave spoils from the trip were a crown ring, a panther ring, and a bouquet of roses ring, which I couldn't find online but is pretty accurately depicted by the last image in the collage but imagine with two smaller buds on the side. My knock-off crown ring looks pretty much identical to the one here, but looks kind of weird when actually worn around. The spikes don't get in the way, but unless I hold up my hand in deliberate display, people don't immediately get it. As for the panther, my substitute is just solid gold (-colored plastic) all over with two bling eyes, which I prefer to this version with diamond pox. I haven't felt it to be standout enough to wear solo so I usually pair it with my hefty class ring as sort of an inside joke with myself: juxtaposing a cheap mod statement with an 18k symbol of pretentiousness, striking a balance of sorts and bringing geek chic out with attention to nuances beyond the surface. The last one is obviously plastic and has no qualms about being glossy and colorful - more of a play ring than the other two, which I feel are workplace acceptable. And the best part of it was still the fact that they were all 3 bucks!



But the real inspiration behind this entry was a trip L and I took around Soho today. Something interesting i noticed was that fashion is quite accessible even in an area like Soho (this is Manhattan Soho, not Hong Kong foodie Soho)- we took many a detour to boutiques with pretty creative designs at affordable prices (dresses for under $50, boots for $30, sale racks sub $20 items). Originally we had been searching for this funky houseware store, mxyplyzyk, from which i'd only made purchases online before...and I digress, but it was also where I got THE cutest teapot/cup set last Christmas for L and loved so much I bought one for myself:
Anyway, we got distracted by the various boutiques and street vendors that stood in our way, and happily engaged in perusal of a handmade jewelry table.

Image cred: Two- Finger Chatoyant Malachite and Chrysacola Ring, etsy.com

..which brings me to this two finger, three stoned gem. There's probably a name for this but google images gave me what I needed when I typed in that query. My version is not exactly the same, and is cheaper made with gold wire and smaller black stones...what's the name of it? I don't know. but it is surprisingly uninhibiting - a plus when your job is typing intensive. We tried on the three fingered ones which were just as easily navigable but eventually succumbed to the cold that froze our fingers and made ring shopping unsustainable.

I'm waiting for forever21 to come up with their version of two and three fingered rings...if they do I might just pay the $20 for international shipping over to HK.


Image creds for ring collage, from top to bottom: Vivre crown ring, vivre.com: $3850; Anita Ko diamond encrusted panther ring on Net-a-Porter: $5500; Rose ring on fredflare.com, $12