Sterling Silver Turquoise Navajo Ring

Why do we bother with vintage pieces? Why not just get a new piece? Well, vintage pieces invoke nostalgia -- experienced, perceived, or otherwise -- for a time that’s gone. What’s good about those times? Sometimes it’s the craftsmanship that we no longer have access to. Other times some part of our outfit demands it. Much of our clothing culture is built on things from the past. It’s like we take out the better elements of what was old and add new twists to it. So vintage pieces are more rare and often it’s the last one there's like it. In the case of handmade Navajo turquoise rings, it is the only one like it. That piece of turquoise doesn’t exist in some other ring because each cut of turquoise is like a fingerprint from the planet earth. Then there’s the effect that happens to a piece as it’s worn and ages. You see subtle wear marks on the piece. It makes a statement.

Vintage tells onlookers that the piece is from some place and time. It connotes that intent was placed in procuring or caring for the piece. Ultimately, that intent made its way to your outfit. This is important to us. As human beings, we don’t live in the present because “now” doesn’t really exist, does it? Now is here for some brief moment and is gone just as quickly. As I finished writing that sentence, the “now” I was writing it in is gone. It’s now some part of the past. A past that dictates what I write now, and intend to write in the not-so-distant future. That life we live in the past brings with it particular items. Vintage items are those relics. We look for their signs of age and qualities of uniqueness. And this quality is near mystical. Why? Well as we age, these items help us express our uniqueness.

So I love new pieces. But sometimes I look at an old piece and I know that it can’t be made again. To make it again, we’d have to go back in time and make it. We can make one now, but the qualities aren’t the same. Living from then to now -- the now that’s soon gone -- is part of its creation. When it slips onto your finger or hand, it’s as if it took 4 decades to be made, just for you. Unique in its own special way that helps you express your uniqueness.

Also, it’s a pretty ring. I just wanted to get that out there. It’s really awesome. I could’ve just said that, but that’d be boring. I do this to have fun. Did you have fun? Good! That’s now part of your story.