How would you wear your JVD Claddagh ring? I’d wear it on my finger, obviously, I hear you say. Sounds like it’s an easy question and easy answer, but not so.

The beauty of something like a Claddagh ring is that it can signify so many different things, both to the wearer and to other people. It can be a wedding ring, a ring to celebrate your connection to someone close, or even your connection to your Celtic and Irish heritage.

Then there’s the choice of finger too. I wear my Claddagh ring - you’ll notice that it’s a rather commonplace silver one, not a custom JVD Claddagh ring, featuring a unique take on this legendary symbol - on my right pinkie finger as you can see. Lots of people where them on their wedding fingers. I’ve seen people wear them on their thumb too.

Even when we’ve decided which ring we’d wear our JVD Claddagh ring on, and we’ve figured out the size we need, together with which precious metal, we’re not done yet. No, we need to figure out which direction we’ll wear it once we arrive at that special time, the moment we get to put it on. You see, we use jewellery like Claddagh rings to communicate whether we’re open or closed to possible relationships.

If you choose to wear your JVD Claddagh Ring with the heart pointing towards you, and the crown facing away from you, it means you're ‘in a relationship’, to coin a Facebook phrase. If you wear it what I would call 'upside down', it means you're not. Of course, one person’s upside down is another persons ‘right side up’. The fact that you’re not in a relationship could mean you’d like to be, or you’d prefer not to be, but in either case it’s an important signal.

Regardless of how you would wear your JVD Claddagh Ring, the important thing is that you have one, a unique piece of jewellery unlike any other, with its own unique serial number. That’s beauty of hand-made crafted jewellery.

You can shop the JVD Claddagh Rings range and make your custom order here.