Since we’ve asked you to share some of your favorite vintage pieces with us, we thought it only fitting that my sister and I show you ours. As we said in our last blog entry, one of the strongest sources of our love for jewelry was our grandmother, Avis. She gathered an amazing collection, and now those pieces are some of our greatest inspiration for our own pieces. When it came to jewelry, she always stood by the mantra “the bigger the better,” and she especially loved big and colorful cocktail rings. Both Moria and I are lucky enough to have inherited these rings from Avis. My ring is a 14K yellow gold dome ring from the 1960s with two prong set garnets. I get so many compliments on this ring and I think it’s because garnets look great with 14k yellow gold. Now it’s more common to see pieces set in white gold or platinum but there are certain stones in my opinion that should always be in yellow gold and garnet is one of those stones. Moria’s ring is a very large emerald flower ring accented with small diamonds also from the 1960s. It’s in need of a very big cleaning but emeralds are a bit more complex when it comes to that task because they can’t be placed in an ultrasonic or steamed cleaned (easy way). The best method is a simple tooth brush and soapy water. Although it’s dirty, it’s incredibly striking and Moria loves to wear it every day –even when she’s chasing her son or making dinner. Similarly, our grandmother felt her rings weren’t just for special occasions. Avis loved wearing sets of jewelry so Moria also has her matching emerald earrings and necklace.