The Gotham Necklace

I had a client put in an order for an amazing project many weeks ago and I’m happy/relieved/and a little self-impressed to report that she came out beautifully.

This is a claspless full-custom silver necklace using my Gotham links, a special toggle I came up with in a dream after eating a bunch of Chinese food, and a custom hand-carved cross based on the client’s designs.

She’s heavy and might be the all-time crowned champion of “pieces I’d rather not send to the client because it looks mighty good on me instead.”   But no, she’s off to a happy home.

Making a Gotham is hard work when it’s only a bracelet.  A necklace like this is a real ball-buster.  Each link is individually cast.  The chain takes a while to build and solder closed.

Getting the thing cast and built takes time and a lot of elbow grease.  But to me, this is what is so f’king cool about wearing a custom chain.  It represents a lot of time and labor and there’s really no comparison.  All those shitty machine-assembled pieces just don’t feel the same.

The necklace before final polish.

I have a few more rings coming up soon, so stay tuned, but I’m also done taking orders for the Summer.  Yours truly is skipping town for a bit to get some R&R and I won’t be taking any new projects until August.   I’ll do one more big post before then of a couple of AMAZING custom skull rings I’ve been working on.

The Full Right Hand

I’ve always considered the core configuration for any true connoisseur of big, badass jewelry to be the ‘full right hand.’  That’s a big, solid ring and a big, solid bracelet.  Drop that big skull ring on your middle or ring finger and then strap on a torque or a gotham bracelet.  It’s classic and if I could only sell custom skull rings alongside custom bracelets, I would.

I’ve just finished up a cool pair.

This is a custom’d – out King Skull with japanese style carving throughout the shank and a kamon on the forehead.  Natural jade eyes finish this one off and the client requested a gunmetal finish, which could not look more wicked.  The torque took the finish too and it looks like a piece of iron.

I’ve had a few standard projects on the bench and some other custom jobs, but I’ve been trying to squeeze in a little R&R as well.   My friend Maddie came out to visit all the way from New Zealand and she introduced me to Jade Absinthe 1901.

I’ve had absinthe before – kind of a regular thing for me during the Fall, but this 1901 is next-level stuff.  I’m tossing out my old, crappy brands and diving head first into the Jade line.  I’m kinda pissed at her for introducing me to this because this shit is expensive.  Means I have to get that Leonids line out and to market a little sooner than I was thinking.

So yes, the Leonids are just about ready and, unfortunately, the first run is almost completely sold out.  I’m going to have to get in touch with the mine and get some more stones, but yeah, I’ve presold nearly the entire first batch.  More on those beauties soon.

Stones > Beatles

D has been waiting and waiting for me to finish his full-custom silver turquoise gemstone ring and I’ve finally been able to deliver.  He had a specific design in mind and was inspired by my latest jade ring that I hacked up a few months ago with some Hong Kong jade.

D’s not a jade guy, but we set out to use a massive oval-shaped turquoise stone as the centerpiece.  We designed the shank together and the result is badass.

Doing a ring like this is always a dialogue between the stone and the silver.  We want the stone to be the star, but without a big gob of silver behind it, it isn’t a ring worth wearing.  You can buy all kinds of shitty gemstone rings with turquoise or whatever else in craft fairs all over the country.  The one thing they have in common: they suck.  Hollow-backed, shitty metal, etc.  Many of them are made with SILVER WIRE for the love of god.

Just like my skull rings, this all goes out the window.  Solid backed, cast as one piece, and heavy, this is a grown-up’s ring.

 

D was super patient and also contributed more than half of the design process.  Symbols and the bezel cup treatment were all him.  Very cool product.  I’ve had about a half-dozen emails since posting the facebook photos of this sucker asking about cost.  This is full-custom and takes a lot of work to create at this detail level.  The stones are individually selected by me based on the client.  So yeah, they’re expensive.  As I’ve made more of these, I’ve been getting better at balancing my time and production costs with the price.  I’ve finally figured out that these should be  $1000 with shipping included to your door.  I’ve made ’em for less in the past, but I’m shuffling priorities and these take SO much attention, I have to make some changes if I’m going to continue doing pieces like this.

I’ve had a few more pieces flying out of here.  A few class rings, actually.  Who wants a custom skull ring for a highschool ring?  Cool people.  That’s who.

  

That’s Jessica’s custom Big Voodoo.  Did a little voodoo in simliar form around the same time.

The skull rings I wear typically don’t have gemstones, but that’s my own thing.  I have a huge-ass piece of jade around my neck and another on my left hand, so I don’t need anymore stone bling.  But there’s no doubt – it looks awesome on the right design.

 
Last two projects I wanted to mention:

First was another Janis Joplin themed ring for Chris.  

Then a Mystery Cave combo.  I put this up because I don’t actually sell a ton of Mystery Cave rings.  Which is a shame.  It’s one of my favorite designs.  The people who want them and wear them are fanatical about them and I love that.  It’s a special ring for a very specific type of style.  I dig it with the men’s torque because it makes a similar shape to the balls on either end of the bracelet.

Tiki and Torques

 

I love this combo.  Tiki ring and a torque bracelet.  This man knows his gear.  As much as I’ve been a chain guy and I still love my Gotham wrist chain, I’m now a big fan of this torque.  They’ve been popular as well.  Wasn’t sure if you guys would wear ’em because nobody in the US was making a decent one in this style, but my question has been answered.

 

Since we’re talking torques, I thought I’d give some advice about getting these to fit on your wrists correctly.  DONT open them too wide.  THey don’t need to be opened up that much to slide on.  You want it to be extremely tight coming on and off.

So the way NOT to put this bracelet on is like this:

I know the wrist looks like the skinniest part of your arm, but it’s also the most solid.  It’s full of bones, cartilage, and scar tissue.  BUT if you slide the torque UP your forearm a few inches (where it LOOKS a lot thicker) it will actually slide on easier. See below.

 

Now you got that bad boy on and it’s still tight and right.  I’ve been knocking these out for clients and a few have been paired with rings.

 

 

If you’ve ordered one from me in the past few weeks, you should be getting it soon.  I’d love to get some snapshots of my f’king Torque Army out there.

Speaking of Torque Army, I’ve knocked out a special one for a warrior overseas in Iraq.  He’s got some custom stylized skulls on the end of his.

 

Tour isn’t up for a while, but I’m going to ship it to friends/family so he’ll have this bad boy waiting for him when he gets back state-side.

 

Torque ’em over

Oh yes it did.  The silver men’s torque is now LIVE on http://www.mtmaloney.com

I’ve already sold a few pre-orders, but I’m happy to say we’re official and in business.  Get me those holiday orders asap so I can get you delivery before I skip town back to the big ‘Loon in Hong Kong.   Got a little film piece I’m making out there.  Gonna wear my own torque over there and get ‘er done right.

Whether you call it a torque, a torq, a torc, or…..just a silver cuff, this is THE king of ’em all and it’s made right here in the USA.  Maybe I’ll do a more ornate twisted wire version later, but like I said, Yurman already kinda perfected that and you could just buy it from him, right?

Torc and beans.

I am so sick of this shit.

I didn’t ask for much.  I just wanted a solid sterling silver men’s torc bracelet.  It’s a great modern look.  If you don’t know what a torc is, its not your fault.  It’s also called ‘torque’  and the most common incarnation today is worn around the wrist.  Back in the day, though, the Celtic people would wear giant versions around their necks.   Badass.

David Yurman did a great one – made traditionally with woven cables of metal (which is where it gets its name)

Awesome, right?  Well as often happens with awesome work – there are about 10,000 hacks out there right now doing the exact same thing that Yurman did.  They all have twisted wire, but now sport cheesy gemstones at the caps and are made of shitty metals instead of silver or gold in an effort to sell jewelry to people who don’t want to pay for jewelry.

All due respect to Yurman’s design, I wanted something solid.  Something kind of like this:

….but maybe a bit thicker and heavier.  I have an average sized wrist and I thought a 7mm wide band in sterling couldn’t be too much to ask.

Wrong.

Nobody….I mean NOBODY makes one of these in the US.  I spent time on every freakin’ shopping site I could find.  I even got a freakin’ ETSY account, okay?  Nobody makes this.

Sure there are a couple dozen good makers in the UK, but I didn’t wan to get killed on the currency change and shipping.  I also found thousands of examples of sterling silver plated versions of cheaper metal….you know….just in case I want it to rust off of my hand in a few years, or better yet, snap like it’s made of fucking plastic when I’m trying to get it on my wrist.

Get it on my wrist?  That’s right.   Because almost every single one of these is about 2 freakin’ inches in diameter.  None of them would fit a grown man who doesn’t want the circulation cut off in his hand from the spandex-tight fit of these shitty dime-store trinket versions I found all over Amazon, Ebay, and Etsy.

SWEET!  This one has magnets in it!  In case I was failed by my public education and I think this jewelry will make me healthier.  I’m telling you, these were all over the place.  I also found some sculptural  stuff that was pretty cool, but it wasn’t what I wanted.

I found actual quality sterling silver torcs on Etsy, but these dudes were making them 3mm in diameter.  WAY to thin.  I even had a maker respond to my question about band diameter with “they’re 2.5mm thick.  Perfect weight for a bangle.”

“Are you shitting me?” was my response.

“No, they’re already real heavy.”

I’m telling you, this interest in lightweight and inexpensive product has fucking ruined men’s jewelry in the United States.  You know what else is inexpensive and lightweight?  Paper.  Why don’t you wear a fucking paper bracelet and a yarn ring to match.  Or a ring pop so you have something to eat.

I know the grass is always greener, but the UK gals and guys are doing it right.  You can find good, solid sterling pieces over there with clean, classic designs.  Not just torques (torcs, or torqs) but solid bangles and linked chains.

You know, I encountered the same thing when I first started looking at skull rings.

All the best makers of realistic non-death metal rings were in the UK and New Zealand.  So I hooked up with Dana Ruth and learned how to make jewelry and just fucking made my own.  Enough people liked it that I started making them for other people.  Enough people wanted them that I opened up my custom studio.  Turns out, I wasn’t the only person looking for a ring like that.

 

 

 

 

So the question now becomes, am I the only person who wants a solid, badass, men’s torc made in the USA and sized to fit an adult in sterling or gold?  The balls on either side need to be at least 14mm and the band should be 7mm at the thinnest.

We’ll see.  I’m going to make mine.  Then, I’m coming back for you.

 

 

Black Death

Pretty much speaks for itself.

I’ve been doing more custom finishes recently.  This wont stay black, obviously.  Over time, it will wear until its a hi-polish finish.