Ornament on a ship’s bow
Curved scroll at the head of a violin
Unfurling frond of certain ferns.
Rendered here in richly detailed engraving of shadow and light. Absolutely gorgeous. Low-profile, practical, wearable, durable… a ring to wear and love for a lifetime.
I look forward to spring. April, May, and June with the sun riding higher in the sky. I look forward to my marsh and the stream that flows down from the forest. It passes through a field of grass and flows into my marsh. As the stream leaves the field, it drops over the first waterfall. Its fall is less than five inches. It makes a sound. Certainly stronger than a trickle, but truly nothing serious. It is water though, moving, flowing to the sea. It’s a clear white liquid sparkling in the sun, flowing along the banks. In the spring we can see ferns rising, cattails breaking ground. In the spring life is responding to the warmth of the air. Twenty feet down the stream, take a hard right to the largest waterfall with a 7-inch drop. This does enough to create splashing sounds with water scattering around, and water mixing in swirls.
Every spring I spend a day clearing last year’s growth in the stream to allow the water to flow freely. I’ll work an hour then I sit for ten minutes. I listen to songbirds, and later I listen to the sounds of baby frogs. My marsh is close enough to the ocean to hear waves on the shore. These days at my marsh and the stream near the sea, are some of my favorite moments of fair weather. I have a chair 10 feet from the stream, I sit with my ankles crossed, feet up on a large granite boulder. I’m feeling the approach of summer and cattails grow a foot taller each week. Early spring is good because everything is moving slower, and I can actually see individual plants grow.
Beyond the second waterfall, the stream takes a hard left and disappears into last year’s cattails. There are 5 more waterfalls in the marsh before the stream disappears under the road and flows out onto a stone beach and the open ocean.
I’m going to return to my chair and the big granite footstool because this is where I have logged hundreds of fair-weather hours, feeling the presence of the marsh, listening to the flow of the stream, and smelling all the green plants growing.
Living In a Time Machine
I have the privilege of working with my grandfather and great grandfather, even though they are both gone now. This ring is my direct connection to my great grandfather and a ring he made in 1918 or 1919. William Cross was a renaissance man. He was genius. The ring he made in 1918 or 1919 was for his daughter. It was for her birthday. He cut the gem, a forest green Maine tourmaline, then handmade the ring – engraving the upper half with fiddlehead patterns. His daughter, my great aunt, wore it during her lifetime. I inherited the ring which I put away for my daughter someday.
The original ring was beautiful. I gave it to my first born daughter for her 16th birthday. There was a problem. There was a second daughter 3 years behind the first. We immediately began working on a duplicate. We went to William’s chest of drawers with 100 master model rings he had created in the teens and twenties, selected a master like his original, and duplicated it in gold – making another ring for daughter #2. We did all the hand engraving, creating a virtual match to the original.
The new ring was beautiful. Everyone on staff loved it. Now I will admit that the next step did not occur to me for several months. I was simply pleased we had solved the second daughter problem. And yes, then one day I said, “This is so beautiful, we should offer this design to our general public.” It’s even possible someone on my staff suggested that is what we should do. I don’t recall. We made more and the Fiddlehead Ring has quickly become one of the top 20 ring designs in our 100+ year history. The Cross family ring originally designed by William Cross was set with a Maine tourmaline. We now offer it in round or oval gems with blue Sapphire, Blue Sky Topaz, Atlantic Sunrise Citrine, and Maine Tourmaline – which is rare because of diminishing gem availability. We also make the Fiddlehead Ring with diamonds.
The ring shown here has a .39 carat natural, earth-mined, high white, high clarity diamond. Set east to west. Its exterior is hand-carved in the fiddlehead pattern. The ring sits low to the finger. It is smooth to the touch and on the hand has an awesome look. Set with a diamond, this is a three-generation ring. It will be part of your family for at least 100 years.
My great grandfather and I both worked on this design to make it possible to offer to you today.
