Jewels of the Month: Signet Rings for Rebel Women

Later today, I’ll be marking both International Women’s Day and A Day Without a Woman by joining a march in downtown Manhattan. Ahead of that, allow me to share March’s Jewels of the Month: signet pinkie rings for rebel women.

Venus symbol signet ring. Click to order.

These rings are completely customizable — you can select your own metal, insignia, and ring size, to be manufactured here in New York. The rings are all adorned with 28 diamonds totaling five points (there are 100 points in a carat), but you can choose between white or black diamonds.

To provide some inspiration, I made samples featuring three power symbols for women. The Venus symbol, shown above, is on an 18K yellow gold ring set with white diamonds. I did the raised fist of resistance in 18K yellow gold as well, and for the silver sample, I chose the high-heel-shoe emoji. (I personally have always felt powerful in heels, while my brand-development chief, Eryn, who prefers flats on her feet, is very amused by wearing a heel on her hand. So the shoe works either way!)

Photo by Tanya Dukes.

Here’s how the silver ring looks when worn, to give you an idea of the size.

Silver signet ring, as seen on.

I’ve been passionate about pinkie rings for years, even though arthritis made my right pinkie a little unsightly.

See that bent pinkie? Click for original post.

An old song goes, “Accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative,” but I never had any qualms about adorning the bent finger with jewelry. After all, I started this blog nearly 10 years ago with the motto, “Wear What You Want.” (The blog has a new motto, but I still live by the original one.)  However, the arthritis progressed, requiring an operation that has temporarily reduced my ability to wear a right-hand pinkie ring. I’ll have this splint for a few more weeks.

I now have a tiny screw inside my pinkie. It’s like internal jewelry!

Fortunately, my left pinkie will be available when the next sample — an 18K rose gold ring with my middle-finger emoji on it — is ready shortly.

In addition to pinkie rings, I’ve had a thing for signet rings for a long time. I wrote about my big “No Class” signets last year.

The big-ass “No Class” signet ring is being modeled by Eryn in this photo.

I had been considering making some signet rings before I received the initial customer request for the “No Class.” I had been playing around with my real class ring from Columbia University and realized that, size-wise, that petite style made a nice pinkie or midi ring …

Eryn is wearing my class ring as a midi ring on the far right of this photo.

… but I never did feel a strong need to advertise a connection to Columbia on my finger. I’m surprised I got this ring back in the day and that I wore it at all!

My school ring. I think I used to wear this on my ring finger. It’s too small for the ring finger and too large for the pinkie now.

Now I definitely have more interesting things to say with jewelry.  I was satisfied with the “No Class” ring’s humorous vibe for quite a while. Then, as I prepared for the Women’s March on Washington in January, I decided I wanted a new, pinkie-sized signet to represent resistance and strength. The rebel rings missed being ready for the march by a mere week …

We had great signs in January though!

… so I saved their debut for today. Even if you’re not able to strike or protest today, women have been encouraged to display their economic power by refusing to shop, except at women- and minority-owned and small businesses. Seeing as I’m a woman-owned small business, feel free to send any inquiries to me at info at wendybrandes dot com. All 18K gold signet pinkie rings are $1,500, with $100 of that donated to NARAL in your name (or the name of someone else you choose). The silver version is $700; $50 of that will go to NARAL.