Sophie Honeybourne

Red enamel, blue enamel and pearls: the charmingly simple but delicately pretty collections from charmingly- and prettily-named Sophie Honeybourne, working out of her studio on the Isle of Wight.

Luc Kieffer

Highly-polished, Swarovski-laden resin is the signature of Parisian Luc Kieffer. Evidently, the man likes the shiny. The more I stare, the more I want to rub one and feel the sleek smooooothness. Pictured above are rings from his Fall '06/Winter '07 collection, US$165-$204. For more, including Spring '07, visit his site! You can also see his pieces in this New York Mag spring jewellery feature.

Nelia de Sousa - squarecircles

Doilies! Doilies! Doilies! Aside from being fun to say, it turns out they make great ring designs, too. Drawing on her Portuguese heritage, London jeweller Nelia de Sousa of squarecircles puts a sleek, modern face on the traditional lace. She also makes earrings, necklaces and bracelets; the latter also available in colourful acrylic, as pictured above.

Susanne Zöckler, again

I'm only two months late in mentioning the ring my sister got me last Christmas. I'm now the proud owner of a Susanne Zöckler folded paper ring; I posted about these rings in August 2006.

Julia deVille

You're looking at a sterling silver talon ring by New Zealander Julia deVille. Her website features her jewellery and taxidermy, and I am not kidding about the taxidermy. Be warned... be very warned. Julia has pledged her body for plastination after her death.

Yoshio Ishikawa

A different aesthetic from my usual posts, from Japan's Yoshio Ishikawa. This piece is part of his appropriately-titled "Noir" collection.

Lin Cheung

Now those are my kind of cupcake. (As if there existed a cupcake that wasn't my kind.) English artist Lin Cheung analyzes the "fundamental reasons for owning and wearing jewellery" through her experimental objects. I love her modernized lockets!

Verena Schreppel

Fur freaks me out. It's like the horror of finding (animal) hair in your soup, but times a thousand. Then again, I do wear leather shoes (albeit somewhat reluctantly) so this fear isn't exactly coming from a rational place. If you're not bothered by a few tufts of hair, German designer Verena Schreppel's fluffy "Foxy" rings (€160) would make a cool nighttime accessory. The fox fur spins around the silver ring! Also pictured are her "Ripprings" — silver rings cast from stiched fabric (these showed up on many blogs recently, so you may already be familiar with them).

Klaus Bürgel

Polyhedron lovers, meet Klaus Bürgel.

Orfeo Quagliata - Phuze

Picking my favourite jeweller is impossible. But picking my favourite glass jeweller? Easy. It's Orfeo Quagliata of Phuze. I first wrote about him in March 2005* when I finally picked up one of his pieces (a red "Om" ring) while on vacation in San Francisco. I've been a long-time fan so it was a pleasant shock to realize he knew of this site's existence! He let me know that his company, based in Mexico City, just re-vamped its website. It looks great and there's plenty to see, so go check it out! Don't miss the furniture and art installations, either. Pictured above: "nauty less" (left) and "chupa" rings.

* This blogger site is just a mirror of my actual blog, which I keep at http://thecarrotbox.com/news. You can view my March 2005 post over there in the archives.

Tomoko Furusawa

Some flora and fauna from Antwerp-based Japanese designer Tomoko Furusawa. You know that chocolate cake you had that one time, that looked really rich but turned out to be not as sweet as you were expecting? Her fairytale jewellery is like that — all pearls and ribbons and frilly bits, yet, somehow, not cloyingly saccharine.

Maarten van der Vegte

Creative concept alert! In Dutch jeweller Maarten van der Vegte's own words: "This ring is made of 24 karat gold, pure copper and pure silver, all in the right proportions to create 18 karat yellow gold when alloyed. So, what you are wearing is an 18 karat yellow gold ring. It's just not alloyed yet." Genius! But it makes me wonder... first, LEGO in Denmark, then IKEA in Sweden, and now Maarten in the Netherlands — are northern Europeans obsessed with disassembled parts, or what?

Antoine Chevalier

Geneva's Antoine Chevalier makes furniture and lighting. But I don't care about that. I'm just obsessed with his colourful, graphic plexiglass rings inspired by roadsigns! Arrows, parking signs and crosswalks available; pictured here are cyclists with conveniently (and ingeniously!) ring-shaped wheels (40 CHF). Also pictured are his adorable animal rings, 30 CHF.

Maude Schneider

Though not yet as ubiquitous as skull rings or even keyboard rings, I do notice more and more LEGO rings popping up. The ones pictured here are by Swiss designer Maude Schneider, whose speciality is actually ceramics. They come packaged in a clear plastic sphere (like a see-through Christmas tree ornament), with the pieces disassembled so you can put together your own special ring. Available for 36 CHF — that's Swiss Francs — which is just under US$30.

mou

The elegantly simple shapes of these rings leave you free to admire their gorgeous colours and rich wood grain (there is some ivory and ebony in there as well). Funny how jewellery can be so soothing sometimes. These pieces are by Japan's mou; ¥6,300 (roughly US$55) each at Room, a jewellery shop in Kobe. View more rings in the January 2006 archives of mou's Japanese-language blog.

Melissa Finelli / Elizabeth Garvin / Conroy and Wilcox

Do you like full moons or half? Boston's Melissa Finelli goes the half-moon route with her topaz-studded "pod" ring (above, left); her collection includes a pendant resembling a UFO, in case you're going for a spaced-out theme. Meanwhile, New York's Elizabeth Garvin (who also studied in Boston) offers an array of silver ball jewellery, from pins to earrings to rings (like the one above, right). Myself? I'm the crescent type, as long as they're not by Pillsbury.

Frauke Witzke

A few pieces from German jeweller Frauke Witzke. I'm loving the slightly worn, imperfect look of these rings, like they already have a history behind them.

Decoupage

If you love vintage Bakelite jewellery (or even if you're just thinking about loving some), Decoupage has one of the most nicely-curated selections I've seen online. For sale are some gorgeous deco pieces, plus Lea Stein celluloid and even Scandinavian silver. The site may be in Japanese, but the pictures aren't — so get clicking!

Allysons-Designs / Eli&Ra

Can you stand the cute? Can you? Left: Allysons-Designs vintage carved flower and sterling silver bird ring, US$130. Right: sterling "Elliot" bird ring by husband and wife Eli&Ra, available at their shop Figs & Ginger, US$40.

Yael Krakowski

The most I ever did with seed beads was make friendship pins in grade two. That's why I'm not award-winning artist Yael Krakowski, who makes kaleidoscopic jewellery comprised of thousands of those tiny glass beads. Born and trained in Israel but now living in Vernon, BC, she developed her technique while on a sailing trip. I bet she was eating German raspberries at the time.

Ayako Suwa

A rare weekend post from me, as I wanted to point to this PingMag feature on Ayako Suwa, master of food creation. It's not a jewellery feature per se but they do mention her edible rings.

Eva Maisch

The work of German goldsmith Eva Maisch ranges from the delectable, like a necklace resembling chicklets (the gum, not the animal), to the less appetizing, like the above fly ring (the insect, not the complimentary adjective).

Anette Kortenhaus

Anette Kortenhaus, a German designer living in Australia, is a skilled metalsmith — but that fact is almost forgotten once you discover her colourful side. Her felt "dwarf's hat" rings (pictured above, top left) and paper maché "blossom" rings (top center) are the complete opposite of the cool tones and sharp lines in her silver and gold work (like this marquise ring). Not that there's anything wrong with that, especially with results like these. [While trying to think of another way to say "opposite," I realized that "mirror image" means "the same" when it really makes more sense for it to mean "the opposite." Why is that?]