Sales & Shopping

March 11, 2008

rings jewelry new designers

Object Lesson

Weird Science

ITSNONAME experiments with a new formula in modern jewelry. By Danielle Prescod

From the ancient Greeks to Animal House, the classic insignia ring has long been a proud symbol of clans and lineage worldwide. This commemorative bling makes a great hand-me-down for those who love the classics, but for the modernist at heart, the new line ITSNONAME has an appealing offering at hand—the Periodic ring, a symbolic description of nothing but itself.

Co-designers and couple Joe Johnson and Jeanju Choi-Johnson had a refreshingly unfussy approach to creating the line. "The concept was simple," Johnson says. "It's just a blatant presentation of the natural material the jewelry is composed of." Using the periodic table as the foundation, each ring in solid silver, gold, or platinum is inscribed with each element's actual periodic table data and made complete with both scientific symbol and atomic number. By providing us with a chemistry cheat-sheet, the Periodic ring might actually be the most conspicuous form of wearable art we've spotted in a while. As both designers put it, "[These] rings are the solid truth, literally."

As luck would have it, the duo met at a house party in Minneapolis—not science class—and they currently occupy a studio in Brooklyn. But designing isn't (yet) their full-time day jobs. "We both also work 9 to 5 jobs for advertising and fashion companies," Johnson says. "Jean worked in fine jewelry for a couple of years where she learned the technical ropes. And one night, the idea just hit us." Since the recent debut of the collection, the designers have already been taking orders, and the pair plan to build a full line of pieces to add to the rings in the near future—designs that will more than likely also be worth their weight in Au.

ITSNONAME Periodic rings, from $205 for silver to $6,500 for platinum, are available online at itsno.name and by email, info@itsno.name.

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