Vanitas ring

VANITAS Ring

Sterling silver ring with natural black pearls, hand-fired vitreous enamel, cz and black spinel, 18k gold plating and volcanic oxidation.

VANITAS is part of TOMB — a collection built around the tension between ornament, material beauty and the passage of time.

Its name comes from the Latin vanitas — vanity, futility, transience. In European art, Vanitas became a reminder that beauty, wealth and life itself are temporary. That contradiction sits at the center of the ring: an exposed silver skull surrounded by gold, black pearls and a dense field of stones.

The composition draws from several historical traditions. Its central image recalls European memento mori jewelry of the 16th and 17th centuries, where skulls appeared alongside gemstones, gold and colored enamel. Another layer comes from medieval reliquaries and the richly adorned relics of the 17th and 18th centuries, where visible bone was surrounded by pearls, stones, gilded metal and elaborate ornament.

Along the shoulders, hand-fired vitreous enamel is set within three-lobed forms that echo the trefoil geometry of Gothic architecture and reliquary metalwork. Natural black pearls replace the pale pearls associated with many historical examples, shifting the reference into a contemporary object.

The surface is intentionally uneven. Areas of exposed sterling silver meet fragments of 18k gold plating and our signature volcanic oxidation, created with natural sulfur from Indonesia. Darkened recesses sit beside brighter metal, emphasizing the relief and giving the surface the appearance of something altered by time rather than artificially aged.

VANITAS does not reproduce a specific historical artifact. It brings together fragments of memento mori jewelry, Gothic reliquary forms and adorned relics, rebuilding them through the contemporary language of Ruinism.

TOMB is a collection built around the tension between ornament and impermanence. Pearls, enamel, stones, gilding, cracks and deliberately aged surfaces become part of one visual language. Beauty does not oppose the passage of time — it exists within it.

Carpe Diem.

Sterling Silver 925 / Natural Black Pearls / Cubic Zirconia / Natural Black Spinel / Hand-Fired Vitreous Enamel / 18k Gold Plating / Volcanic Oxidation

Approx. weight: 10.72 g in size 21.5