The Story of JVD Claddagh Rings
A custom design of Celtic Claddagh Rings - 15 years in the making
JVD is Joe V Duff, designer of celtic Claddagh rings since 1979. JVD is also Joe’s hallmark, denoting him as the maker of his unique jewelry. This post delves into the detail of Joe’s story, in his words.
“It was the biggest robbery in Irish history!”
“I started my goldsmith journey with an apprenticeship in 1979 at Thomas O’Connor & Sons. At the time it was one of the biggest Jewellery manufactures in Ireland, employing over a hundred goldsmiths. The apprenticeship was 4 years. There was very low mechanization; it was very manual. You were hand-crafting each ring.
“I worked there until 1986 when the company closed, following a robbery the year before. It was the biggest robbery in Irish history! In fact, there have been two movies made of the robbery, 1 featuring Kevin spacey and the other with ireland’s own Brendan Gleeson.
In 1987 I moved to be a full-time job goldsmith in 1987 at the Irish Souvenir and Jewellery company. In 1993 I moved to Galway. My plan was to do goldsmithing for some of the main jewelers in Galway. You see, there was a real demand for Irish-made jewelry, especially Claddagh and other Celtic and Irish designs. Unfortunately, they would not hire or sub-contract the work. They were getting the rings made abroad.
This led me to open a small shop to sell my own jewelry. I found, however, that people in Ireland tended to buy from a retailer rather than the maker as they believed - wrongly as it happens - that the shops made them! That was my first time lesson about branding! For a while I was doing repairs and re-sizing of jewelry for shops and individual customers, but it was very hard financially.
“It was during this time, around 1999, that I designed my Celtic Claddagh ring. It used the traditional symbols of heart, crown and hands and also incorporated a Celtic knot motif into the heart and hands. I didn’t sell a single one until 2015…
“Jewelry design then had to take a back seat for a number of years. My wife’s work took her away a lot and so I became the stay-at-home parent, doing the school runs and driving a cab at night. Design was a hobby for me during this time, as I still got to make pieces for friends and family at the weekends.
Fast forward to 2015, when I was managing a bar in Athenry, home of the world-famous song ‘The Fields of Athenry’. A family of Americans were in the bar and they asked me to make a Claddagh ring for one of the couples who were getting engaged. I showed them my design. It was an 18 carat ladies ring. They loved it and were over the moon that they had the first ring of this unique design.
“My American friends told me to go online and sell my Claddagh rings that way. Here we are, in 2019, and I have some people to help me with the ecommerce side of the business, and I can concentrate on design and production of my Celtic Claddagh rings.”
You can shop the JVD Claddagh Rings range here.