CRAFT: It's Friday, April 16, 2010

Nashville Jeweler Creates Ring-a-Day to Benefit CERF

The Ring-a-Day project is all about experimentation. And creativity. And fun. And supporting CERF (the Craft Emergency Relief Fund).

Carrie Nunes, a jeweler and gemologist from Nashville, as well as a supporter of CERF, committed to making a ring a day for all of 2010. That's 365 rings and she is already almost 4 months into it without missing a day! The idea was hatched on Flickr by Brooklyn jeweler Nina Dinoff leading to a number of artists working on parallel ring making journeys. To our knowledge, Nunes is the only artist who is donating all the revenue from her project to a non-profit although others have identified charities, like relief work in Haiti, as recipients of some of their sales. To date, Nunes has donated over $1,000 to CERF, who reports that customers are extremely supportive and excited to see where the project leads.

What does it feel like to have to make a ring EACH and EVERY day? Nunes says that she is full of creativity some days while on others it feels like a weary struggle often leading to new technical breakthroughs. Mostly she reports enjoying the freedom of pure experimentation that the project has given her. Additionally, it has inspired other artists to push themselves to create more frequently in a chosen media.

Like other artists involved with the project, Nunes makes her rings from a wide variety of materials and of equally diverse styles. For example, on January 20, Carrie crafted that day's ring from a kitchen sponge while the one she made on March 7 sported the whimsically appointed head of a tiny bear Calico Critter set in sterling silver, 14 carat gold and bedecked with sparkling citrine. Even a wrapped Ricolla cough drop finds a home atop the ring crafted on the first of February. Style and prices vary widely with some selling for as little as $1 each.

Carrie's collection

Other artists involved in the Ring-a-Day project

Enjoy, laugh, buy a ring, support CERF.