Speaking of urban nomads, cement is one thing often blamed for making cities bland and dreary. Though I've seen it used very ingeniously for interiors (I would use it myself as panels or accents for my future home), I've never seen concrete in jewelry as satisfying as these rings from a collaboration between Beat Poët menswear and 22designstudio.
The rings come in two shades of gray and have built-in stainless steel.
Do you notice the difference between the three models?
But before that, what makes these digit holders doubly appealing are the perforations meant to suggest construction work. Gives the rings a totally different vibe, reminding me of knuckle pieces.
Back to raw earth, back to the silhouettes.
First is the Ando model, which is simply circular. Reminds me of city transmission lines.
Named "Brutalism", these pieces are meant to be stained red.
The more peacefully sounding Tatami rings remind me, of course, of tatami mats used in Japanese homes. From cement to fiber!
Interesting to make concrete a prized material. But for its sheer material flexibility and aesthetic possibilities (as these rings show), it may well deserve its own place on velvet.
There are other interesting versions of these cornet rings (without holes) on the 22designstudio website.
From the Beat Poët page:
These rings are based on the brutalist ideas of of architects such as Louis Kahn and the concrete architecture of Japanese architect Tadao Ando. His work is characterized by simple geometry and an almost exclusive use of concrete, with the formwork holes left intact.
The concrete, imperfect and raw like a man-made contribution to the natural environment, ages gracefully in a wabi-sabi manner, making visible the invisible logic of nature.