On New Year’s Day, there was something about this Instagram post that made me pause—I mean, I love a good mani, but there was something else about the image of this ring that drew me to it, made me think it had a story to tell.
And indeed it does, according to its designer, Meaghan Hennelly, of Goldhenn Jewelry, a line I haven’t seen for some time but remember well from early editions of the Metal & Smith show.
It’s called the Horizons ring, and it’s made for a fitting New Year’s Day greeting, given the “new horizons” that are rising up to meet us at the beginning of this new year—and new decade.
Because the ring seemed to stand out among the “come at me 2020” and “here are all my fabulously optimistic goals and ruminative observations” chatter, I reached out to Hennelly to find out more about the design and its inspiration, partly out of curiosity and partly out of my own need to fixate on an object that could, at least symbolically, make the idea of hopeful new beginnings feel a little more tangible.
“This ring is the culmination of my 20-year jewelry journey—the trials and tribulations of starting my own brand and all that comes with it,” she says. “Somewhere along the way my vision became clouded, by outside opinion, consumerism, and a ‘what sells’ business-driven mentality. My voice and point of view got muddied, and I didn’t stay entirely true to myself.
“This piece is speaks to how I understand the power of jewelry, stones, and elements. It holds a special feeling of grace within it, where my truth as an artist remains untouched.”
Hennelly’s intent was to replicate a thawing winter sky and the dawning of a new season, so that meant “showing the range of colors that bridge the cool blue-violet end of our color spectrum to the beginning, the warmer reds.”
Meanwhile the opal center stone encourages freedom and independence, enhances cosmic consciousness, and stimulates creativity and optimism, while Malaia garnet helps regain lost energies and promotes regeneration. Add the purifying and aligning energy of platinum and the warmth of rose gold, to symbolize love, and you get a deeply spiritual ring imbued with the kind of alchemy that feels just right for nurturing creativity, setting intentions, and identifying priorities. “These metals add organization and order to our lives,” says Hennelly.
Hennelly also shared with me that she and her family recently moved from New York City back to her “adopted home” of Santa Fe, N.M., where she started Goldhenn in 2012.
“Since the move, I have been able to get back to the core of what I love doing most—creating, innovating, and thinking outside the box, melding modern and traditional jewelry techniques and carefully considering the energetic attributes of the materials I use.”
Cheers to that. And may all our horizons be bigger, brighter, and better this year. And nudge us closer to where we want to be.
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