As seen on Boing Boing, this is a digital camera disguised an antique locket. I'm not sure why it was made, but that doesn't take away from the coolness. As many bloggers have pointed out, it is a tad large for every girl to pull off, but I'm sure there's a hipster in Williamsburg who has some bizarre outfit just waiting for this to create perfection.
But this leads me nicely into today's post, which is about lockets! I have always loved lockets and can't see myself not loving them in the future. Even if you have a brand new locket, the whole idea carries this lovely history: little Victorian girls getting their first piece of jewelry, Civil War fiancees carrying a photo of their beloved next to their heart.
Victorian Diamond and Pearl Locket
Large Victorian Opal and Seed Pearl Locket
I couldn't find much on the history of lockets (Wikipedia, how could you let me down?), but it always seemed like they were a pretty personal experience. Containing photographs of your loved ones, maybe the people you hope will love you back? Over the years, I have received and lost several lockets and I've never put a photo in them. I'm not sure why; maybe because the pictures (or the people) were not right enough... I've been looking for about five years now; I'm trying to find a locket that suits me perfectly. In the meantime, here are some contemporary lockets:
Daffodil Embossed Locket
Silver Heart Locket
Wish Locket... Holds a wish! Sadly, this one is sold out, but the following one from Alex Monroe is similar and holds a bird--who needs wishes anyhow?:
Alex Monroe Filigree Locket
And another Alex Monroe (c'mon, you know he's one of my faves)
Lace Fern Locket
FYI: His pieces are priced in Pounds, so you will have to figure out currency exchange on your own as it basically changes by the hour.
Silver and Glass Locket, which can be filled with more than pictures. $42
Tanzanite and Diamond Locket, on clearance for a mere $479.20
Also unavailable, but I loved the design. I've seen this Damascene style on ebay before, so it might not be too hard to find.
I'm out of pictures!
19 comments:
Yikes! I just did a round locket AND a kind of locket with a little animal in it :-( And here I thought I was so original. Anyway, I'm in a different price category. Meanwhile, one of my favorite examples of a locket ring is this (click to second picture)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/photo_gallery/2973697.stm
Shoot, my URL got cut off. I guess we can't do links here? After "photo_gallery/" the last part of the URL should be: 2973697.stm
WOW!!! That is incredible! And I thought the locket I found with a mermaid was unusual. I wanted to include rings, but my brain was swimming this morning. I don't drink coffee and often regret it! Some of the poison/ locket rings are amazing, but I kept finding cheesy ones. Like, Grateful Dead loving hippie ones. The only exception was yours! I'll keep looking so I can do a complete post at some point.
What animal did you do?
A squirrel! I should have a pic in a couple of weeks. We're fine-tuning it, then it has to go to the photographer, blah blah. LOL re hippie rings. How odd. BTW, the outside of that Elizabeth I ring is very beautiful too. I'd post the link but it won't turn out right. I'll dig through my photo/books for good poison rings. I'm sure I have some interesting pictures.
Oh, a squirrel! That's wonderful. Nobody has done squirrels and they a great replacement for the whole bird/ deer thing.
Please do send me some good poison rings if you can find them. The other stuff I found, outside of hippie rings (literally either a Grateful dead dancing bear or a pot leaf) were the faux goth rings that I probably wore in HS. We used to keep crushed up tylenol or smarties in them and pretend to poison people. I had no desire to relive those days by posting about them!
Oh, I hope this link turns out. Very unusual antique ring. I'm putting the link on three lines to see if it urns out better...just paste them all together:
http://www.thingsgoneby.com/
antique_jewelry/
antique_rings/8521poison_ring.shtml
And here's another:
http://www.oneofakindantiques.com
/catalog/3804_antique_rare_early_
french_secret_poison_ring_1.htm
If you ever do a post on Victorian mourning jewelry made with hair, I know I have tons of pix of that!
Those are wonderful! Once I get a meal into meal I'll start really hunting down some good ones. I know they are out there and hiding!
I really want to post about Posey/ ie rings... I read a book once where the main character had just inherited her grandpa's vintage jewelry store, which included posey rings. She had a collection in which the rings had gemstones that spelled out something with the first letters of their names. As I write this, it seems very confusing! Okay, so the rings would be: Aquamarine Opal Diamond if there person's initials were A.O.D. Have you ever heard of these? I can't find much about them; all the posey rings I see are the traditional engraved kind...
ROTFLMAO @ crushed-up smarties!
This one is supposedly a man's ring? Hmmm.
http://www.faycullen.com/
mens_rings/800/ece118r1.html
Oh, I know the posey rings...I've known them as "adore" or "darling" rings where they typically spell out those particular words. I considered doing something like that, but the combination of gems is so ugly! Ha! I might have some pictures though. Will check.
Yeah, my friends and I were... something else. :) Anyhow, that "men's" ring is awesome! The colors are gorgeous and I wish both that it was smaller and that I had a couple of thousand dollars laying around.
Thanks for suppling the alternate names of those posey rings. I just googled it and found one (but only one; it seems adore and darling have been appropriated to describe engagement rings instead) and it is butt-ugly, so I see now what you are talking about. LOL! It is really not a nice ring. There must be some word that spells a pretty ring!
Also, I'm getting a lot of hits for people who "adore" The Ring (movie). Sigh.
Oh! It's called Acrostic jewelry and now I've found a ton about it.
http://sentimentaljewelry.blogspot.com/2006/09/acrostic-jewelry.html
Really fascinting!
ROTFLMAO re "The Ring." Here, I'm just going to write "Naomi Watts" to encourage that. *Evil laugh*
Yeah, the Darling rings are definitely ugly. Sometimes ugly can be beautiful but I couldn't find a way to make it work. I can't find any of my pictures...they must have been too ugly to keep!
Great job finding the acrostic information!
What have I done to deserve such cruelty?!
Some of the pieces on the blog aren't half bad! This came up in the search:
http://www.rubylane.com/shops/rowan/item/8335
It's not technically acrostic, but it's so romantic, right?
Thanks, btw! It's always nice to figure something like that out after YEARS of searching. :) Couldn't have done it without your help...
Always a pleasure, but I give all the credit to Google. :-)
I'm working on a book post for you right now. For you and Naomi Watts, I mean.
Oh, I love that plus/minus sign piece. Good find.
was taught by my friend Dave Reader, who said he learned in prison using a tablespoon and the cement floor. But to make things a bit easier, you will need a few common household tools. Men’s rings
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