Ring the changes

Bloggers are where it’s at style-wise. So much so that NZ accessory label Meadowlark has collaborated with its favourite bloggers to create four edgy and collectable limited edition silver rings sold only online…

Bloggers are where it’s at style-wise. So much so that NZ accessory label Meadowlark has collaborated with its favourite bloggers to create four edgy and collectable limited edition silver rings sold only online at the Meadowlark site www.meadowlarkjewellery.com from Friday 9 July 2010.

The Blogger Collection is limited to 200 pieces (50 of each style) with a numbered card with every boxed piece inside a black velvet pouch.

“We decided to do it as we follow their blogs, relate to the perspective they have on fashion and culture, and because they are all really creative people. We love collaborating and thought it would be interesting working with people via email around the world to get a different perspective on jewellery.” says Claire, who alongside her husband Greg creates Meadowlark.

In a very open brief, each collaborator was asked to design their own ultimate piece of jewellery, something they always wished they could get but something that does not yet exist. The pieces were all crafted in Meadowlark’s Auckland studio, with regular progress updates to each blogger via email.

The rings are more avant-garde than generally found in a Meadowlark collection, including a triple spike, articulated finger armour, a memorial cross, and a primal claw.

GARBAGE DRESS

Zana hails from San Francisco – “where I quit high school at the age of 16 to attend San Francisco Art Institute to study “New Genres” (conceptual art). Midway through college, I began Garbage Dress, (after pre-blogging on livejournal since I was 13). After graduating I
moved to Berlin for 4 months, and then to New York, where I wear excessive amounts of black clothing and work on a collection of leather accessories.”

“My idea was to create a hybrid between a claw and a spike, almost like an extra appendage.
While most rings traditionally lie relatively flat against the hand, this one protrudes – an extension that is seemingly dangerous, but innately primal.”

KINGDOM OF STYLE

Michelle is a graphic designer, a DJ and one half of UK style blog Kingdom of Style.
She provides the hard edge to the site bringing their audience the more avant-garde designers, sharing her own rock-tinged style in outfit posts, featuring videos from her favourite bands or
showcasing artists/photographers/ graphic designers.
She has a strong affinity with all things heavy metal and punk and can be frequently seen in vintage Iron Maiden or Metallica t-shirts. Having been a bona fide ‘metal-head’ back in the
80’s, it’s an aesthetic that remains with her 20 years later – she is never far from leather, PVC, studs or chains!

Her piece is “inspired by my mother. It’s a reminder to never give up hope even when the odds are stacked against you.”

DI$COUNT

DI$COUNT is Nadia Napreychikov and Cami James.

"DI$COUNT is our brainchild, conceived as a way of articulating a shared passion for creation, change and innovation within the design industry. It is by paving a new place in the system, through the subversion of and fucking with the fashion framework, that it was developed. The output is steeped in humour and irony, cliché and imitation. It is a luxury brand that doesn’t only cater to the traditional luxury consumer. DI$COUNT is a brand, an idea, an image, a dialogue, a strategy, a transformation, a design, a blog, a motion picture, a label, a personality, a website, a quote, a garment, an emotion and an evolution."

“Those who do not want to imitate anything, produce nothing.” – Salvador Dali

GNARLITUDE

Jen “grew up surfing and skateboarding. Total tomboy. I owe everything I have to music. I’d be ashes on someone’s mantle if I had never gotten into punk when I was a young teen.
Charles Bukowski, Dash Snow, Terry the Tramp, Max G. Morton, Lemmy Kilmister and most importantly, Ryan Hanley. Luke Davies who wrote Candy. Every hotel room, bathroom and van. I am a mix of all things that have had the most impact on me. Head to toe in black jeans, Ksubi t-shirts and Ann Demeulemeester boots. Ex-model, junkie, alcoholic, insomniac, house guest. i’m not worried until the book comes out.”

"My inspiration for the ring was my f**ked up punk rock youth. My friends and I were young teens wearing studs and all that long before it was the trendy thing to do. So in lieu of
wearing patches all over my jeans, growing my mohawk out again and wearing a studded jacket, this is paying homage to my youth and how it shaped me into who I am today. And it looks sick."