Wednesday, February 23, 2011

New Texture has a name: Sands of Time



There is a certain level of enjoyment and anxiety about 'naming' a new ring design or texture. Some names were kind of a given, like my tree bark rings - they were "just" rings before they were wedding rings, so I didn't have any particular wedding thought in mind when naming them. Unlike the "Love Rocks" and the "Tooled w/ Love" rings. Then there is "Subtlety" who is in danger of having their name changed. I feel like it fits the rings, but is so irritating to type - and then I had a customer who even commented on it too! It's a mouthful and complicated - the exact opposite of what the rings are. I'm thinking I should just change the name to "Comfy Cozy" but not sure that would be the best either! haha!

For these new rings, an idea popped in to my head pretty quickly as to what the texture reminded me of. Maybe it was the fact the first ones I did were in yellow gold. Combined with a strong hint of ancient Egypt - and lots of sand. At first I was a bit against the idea of sand because it might make some people think the texture is from being sandblasted, which it isn't. But then someone commented that it did remind them of dirt or sand, which confirmed my thought, so I decided it would be fine.

When I was a kid my mom sometimes watched soap operas and I remember one "Days of our Lives" and the slogan was something to the effect of "Like sands through the hour glass, so these are the days of our lives" (in a deep throaty voice while the image of a big hour glass was on screen - think... early 90's soap opera cheese).

And I really liked the sentimentality of giant hourglass and the sand representing a couples life together, the grains being days or special memories shared together over the many years of their lives... thus... the name Sands of Time. Sweet huh? Little bit of ancient Egypt, loads of sand and a soap opera memory from childhood! And I'm totally in love with this texture. I hope loving couples are too - as this texture is SO fun to create!



And I also did a diamond prototype, for either an engagement ring or for a wedding band w/ a diamond (or a ring that someone wants to wear um, for whatever) It is a 4mm band w/ a 2mm diamond - super subtle and almost blends right in w/ the texture. I love it!



oh and did you notice the sandstone as my nature prop? clever huh? :)

The first listing is up and available here.

6 comments:

kerin rose said...

they are just super -lovely, no matter what you call them!

Beth Cyr said...

thank you kerin! :)

Christina said...

love the subtly texture on these. so pretty beth.

Beth Cyr said...

thanks christina!! :)

Anonymous said...

Hi, this looks beautiful. If it's not from sandblasting, how did you do it?

Beth Cyr said...

I use a hammer handpiece - the tip is one I rounded out a bit to a size I liked.