V. was checking out our website even before R proposed. She noticed our “English Buttercup” ring and immediately fell in love with it. Her hunch about R’s intentions was spot on, and within a short time, R asked for her hand while they were on a motorcycle trip together. V was overjoyed and mentioned that buttercup might be “the” ring, but before they could come into the shop, their priorities shifted. R was in a motorcycle accident. All time, energy and finances were redirected towards healing. Several months passed. Without telling each other, they would each periodically check our website in secret to see if “buttercup” had sold, and were relieved each time to learn that she seemed to be waiting here for them. R is now sufficiently recovered (and sporting a cool mermaid handled walking stick). Today they came in, and after months of stalking buttercup online, R slipped the ring on V’s finger. All agree it’s even better than the picture, and so worth the wait. You will notice that buttercup is finally marked “sold” in our featured section.
June 14, 2011
Cycles
J.B. and M.D.R. are avid cyclists. J, being all artistic, came up with a lovely pattern they call “infinity bike chain”. They used the pattern on all their wedding stationery and also had us hand engrave it on their wedding bands. The endless pattern evokes continuity and interconnectedness. Further developing the theme, J. wanted to incorporate her grandmother’s rings, and came up with a novel way to do it. We are lightly tacking them together, slightly offset, with the laser. J. will then weave a chain through the openings, and close the circle of the chain, woven through the circles of the past, around her neck on the wedding day. What a lovely way to express so many “cycles”
We recently had a visit from F.L.B., a Maloy’s client who is also a published poet. She was admiring a beautiful chunky strand of golden and white baroque south sea pearls in our case. When I remarked about their luster she came back with the perfect observation- “Luster is the right word, because it has ‘lust’ in it”.
Happy smiles about our witty clients.
T.C. Was so happy with her engagement ring from us that she brought her friend, S.B. In to do a little preliminary shopping for her own ring. We helped S. narrow down our selection to her favorite style, and we were happily exploring different rings in that genre.
Suddenly S. pointed to a ring in the case that was quite flashy, and nothing like the other rings she had been looking at. S. explained that she had recently unearthed the diary she kept at the age of 12. In it, she had described the “fantasy wedding” her future self would have. The ring she pointed to in our case was strikingly similar to the picture she had pasted into her diary all those years ago.
Other fantasy options from her 12 year old self that her adult self will probably pass on- the fashion ideas. Options at the top of the list back then were
1) The tight bodice with extremely giant tulle skirt
2) The winter wedding with fur muffs (aka the Russian princess wedding)
3) The bikini wedding.
A.B. was browsing our website and spotted the ring of her dreams, the large yellow sapphire ring we have nicknamed “Bourbon, straight up”. She mentioned the ring to her sweetheart, J.C., several times with no results. She decided to up the ante, and actually changed the background photo on his computer to the “Bourbon” image on our site!
J. got the message, and came in to discover that Bourbon had already sold, but we were able to custom build a variation on the theme for her that was proportioned beautifully for her hand, as well as being proportioned well for his budget.
A client recently came in with a lovely vintage engagement ring in need of some repair. She shared her engagement story. It was Thanksgiving, many years ago, and her young and sweet husband to be was ready to propose. He had a plan! He was going to hide the diamond ring INSIDE the pumpkin pie. Fortunately, he chose to share his idea with his mom, who convinced him, at the last minute, to leave at least the diamond visible above the surface.
Thanks mom, for saving the moment, the ring and, quite possibly, a tooth!
4/9/10
THE STORY – R.Z. Loved a ring. She came in months ago, to get a necklace repaired, spotted the Art Deco diamond ring in our case, and it was love at first sight. R. mentioned it to a friend, who wanted to see it too, so they came in together “to visit”. The friend ooh’d and ahh’d and so R. mentioned it to another friend, who wanted to check it out too. This went on for a few weeks, until the sad day that R. brought in a friend to visit “her” ring, only to find it GONE! Yes, there were a few tears.
THE TWIST – R. was one of the lucky ones. Unbeknownst to her, the ring had secretly been purchased by her fiance, (tipped off by friend #2), who held on to it for several more weeks before presenting it to a shocked and delighted, (and tearful), R.
THE MORAL – Come visit our rings as much as you like, but once you know a ring is “the one”, please put a deposit on it! Our vintage rings are one of a kind pieces. Once they go, they are gone, and until we perfect our time machine (we are working on it), we can’t travel back to 1925 to get you another one just like it.
2/26/10 The staff at Maloy’s wants to thank our clients for sharing their wonderful family jewelry stories! It is an honor to be included in the process of getting your precious heirlooms ready for another generation to enjoy.
THE ITEM- Today I worked with a woman who has a beautiful, heavy , 18k yellow gold chain. The chain dates from the Victorian era, and is almost 6 feet long.
THE STORY- This woman’s grandmother hid this extraordinary chain in her clothing when she immigrated to the United States from Greece around 1910. She was traveling with her two small children, and brought the chain as an “insurance policy”, thinking she could use it in an emergency as a bribe to secure safe passage. Happily, it was not needed, and all arrived safely, with the chain still hidden in her bodice.
THE NEXT CHAPTER – “The Chain” is now being divided into a number of shorter necklaces and bracelets, so that each of this brave woman’s descendants can have their own piece of this wonderful family story.
