Kathryn Riechert is an American metalsmithing artisan who specialises in one of a kind sterling silver jewelry designs which often feature words. Her traditional tooling techniques and her inspirational sources result in simple clean designs with the "stamp" of hand-made charm.

Like me, Kathryn is also inspired by long ago jewelry as shown here with her modern take on posy rings. Posy rings, also known as posey, poesy, posie, were popular lovers' gifts in the 15-17th centuries with terms of endearment inscribed on the outside, and sometimes on the inside. They were a form of promise or betrothal rings which themselves date even further back.

The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England has a collection of posy rings. As JRR Tolkien was a professor at Oxford University, he was likely aware of posy rings and they were possibly the inspiration for the One Ring in his Lord of the Rings books.

Photo with kind permission from Kathryn through her Etsy Store here.