{ the jaunty magpie }

Are you ready for the spooktacular holiday that is HALLOWEEN?! I admit, my costume preparation is sorely lacking, as in I don't have one, but in honor of All Hallow's Eve, I do want to share some badass bling that this Birdy is now happily rocking on her Social Finger. Fancy this, Magpie Darlings: the armor ring.

Certainly nothing ground-shakingly new -- Beyonce rocked a crazy armor-glove thingy, but my yen for statement rings predates B, it goes back to the Ye Olde 1990s, back to a guilty pleasure movie called Hackers, starring a very young 90's-riffic Angelina Jolie.  The movie is laughably bad, a telling portrayal of what we thought The Future would be like, with this new thing called the World Wide Web. But Angie, as always, was intoxicating, as was her choice of jewelry -- throughout the movie she was rocking this cool silver armor ring, shown here.  

For whatever reason, this ring has lingered in my style consciousness for many years and it just took the World Wide Web invention of Etsy to make this dream a reality -- behold the treasure trove of typing in "armor ring" into Etsy's search bar. Thanks to the nerd-gasmic popularity of Victorian Steampunk, elf-obsessed LOTR-dorks, and any number of genre-geek crossovers, there's some cool stuff out there. And while a lot of it leans towards being too Halloween costume for daily wear, you can rock a little goth without being catcalled as Azrael Abyss, Prince of Sorrow. 

I bought a metallic silver armor "talon claw" ring from PipStarPop on Etsy (image 3). Very pleased with the purchase, been wearing it off and on the last week or so, making sure to hold a glass of red wine or a cool martini with the Clawed Hand of Magpie. I took my time browsing the Etsy-verse before settling on this design. I was pleased to see the range of armor rings available -- there are some modern-styled interpretations, like this one from UmmNiyatiJewelry {1}, a more literal armor ring that's pretty much a dead-on match to the one Angelina Jolie rocked in Hackers {2}, and there's some very pretty lattice-style rings for a more softer look, like this gold filigree style from Raven Eve Jewelry {4}. 

Sure, this may not be for everyone, but I've always been about big statement rings. For the gals like myself who don't paint their nails, this is one way to dress up your hands and rock a bold look.


Jaunty Fine Print: Images from listed stores, image #3 taken by Denise Sakaki