Our Vintage Cocktail Rings

Since we’ve asked you to share some of your favorite vintage pieces with us, we thought it only fitting that my sister and I show you ours.

As we said in our last blog entry, one of the strongest sources of our love for jewelry was our grandmother, Avis. She gathered an amazing collection, and now those pieces are some of our greatest inspiration for our own pieces.

When it came to jewelry, she always stood by the mantra “the bigger the better,” and she especially loved big and colorful cocktail rings. Both Moria and I are lucky enough to have inherited these rings from Avis.

My ring is a 14K yellow gold dome ring from the 1960s with two prong set garnets. I get so many compliments on this ring and I think it's because garnets look great with 14k yellow gold. Now it's more common to see pieces set in white gold or platinum but there are certain stones in my opinion that should always be in yellow gold and garnet is one of those stones.



Moria's ring is a very large emerald flower ring accented with small diamonds also from the 1960s. It's in need of a very big cleaning but emeralds are a bit more complex when it comes to that task because they can't be placed in an ultrasonic or steamed cleaned (easy way). The best method is a simple tooth brush and soapy water. Although it's dirty, it's incredibly striking and Moria loves to wear it every day --even when she's chasing her son or making dinner. Similarly, our grandmother felt her rings weren't just for special occasions. Avis loved wearing sets of jewelry so Moria also has her matching emerald earrings and necklace.

Show Us Your Vintage Jewelry, Win A $250 Shopping Spree

We absolutely love vintage jewelry. Some of our most popular items here at M. Flynn are based on antique pieces we found in our grandmother’s jewelry box. This month, we thought it would be fun to see what kinds of vintage treasures you guys have.

Send us a picture of your favorite vintage jewelry, along with any compelling stories about the history of your piece, who you inherited it from or where you purchased it, and you’ll be entered to win a $250 M. Flynn shopping spree. At the beginning of next month we’ll post the top entries on the blog and pick the most interesting piece.

To enter, send your picture and your story to giveaways@mflynnstudio.com before the end of February.

Red Carpet Baubles

It's award show season, which means that celebrities are getting dressed to the nines for lots of big, red carpet events. Obviously the most exciting part for my sister and I, is looking at all the amazing jewelry these stars are pairing with their gowns. We picked a few of our favorite pieces from the recent Golden Globe Awards and Screen Actors Guild Awards to share with you guys.


Sarah Hyland paired a statement necklace made of diamonds and pearls with her nude-colored dress.


Halle Berry stacked lots of diamond bangles to glam up her black dress.


Eva Longoria embellished her plain black dress with two diamond brooches.


Rosario Dawson tops off her pale yellow dress with a set of big, bright turquoise earrings.


Tina Fey’s leaf-shaped earrings tie in with the leaf shapes on her dress.


Did you have any favorite pieces of your own? We'd love to hear about them!

Love & Lockets

Lockets were a much-loved jewelry piece during my favorite jewelry era, the Victorian era (1837-1910). They were made of every type of material including rose gold and yellow gold, and many were set with stones like opal or garnet. These pieces were sometimes worn under clothing to protect the sentimental keepsakes from public eyes. This fall, my sister and I picked up some vintage lockets for the store and I started noticing that they might be gaining popularity.

Maria Sharapova loves her vintage locket:



Katie Holmes wearing a locket:



Rihanna shows that lockets can complement funkier styles too:




Here are some pictures of the antique Victorian-era lockets we purchased.

This locket is a classic heart shape with engraving on the front. Inside there is plenty of room for pictures of loved ones.



This oval locket is unique and is hand-engraved with a monogram. It's beautifully done, though we've been debating what letters are engraved on it. Nevertheless, it's a very special piece.



This circle-shaped locket has old pictures of someone's children inside. It could be used as a charm for a bracelet as well as a necklace.

The Creative Process

Happy New Year!

One of the problems with designing is that you end up with lots of materials that may look like they are going to be incredible materials to work with but once you start laying things out, they don't look right. Over the years we have gotten better with this but I have a ton of crystals I thought would be great glued to flowers....Yeah, that didn't work. I have porcelain flowers that I tried to attach to a clasp once....yeah, that also was a bad idea. This was the also the case with these African Glass Beads. They are beautiful but they were sitting patiently in our studio for at least 4 years along with some of the other "great ideas." We specially imported them from a guy who worked in a CO-OP that helps local villagers organize and produce them. We had emailed with him for months - choosing the colors and sizes that we needed. After a 2 months, they arrived in a box that looked like it had hardly survived the difficult journey from Africa. Moria and I were so excited to get them. These beads were the answer to our next collection and they had finally arrived. But wait, the holes are big...but wait the colors were a bit off and eventually we concluded that everything we had planned would need be postponed until we figured out how to work with the beads.

Well, Moria finally did it! I am so happy to finally use clean them off the shelf and use these beautiful beads. Here's a look at what's coming!

Seven Days of Gift Giving!

We've decided to list some of our favorite pieces and lines we have in store and in stock this week for those last-minute gift grabs.

Kicking off this series is one of our favorite non-M.Flynn lines-- Alexis Bittar-- who we regularly stock in our retail store.

Hailing from Brooklyn, Bittar crafts his line mostly out of lucite, metal and crystal. His pieces are like wearing transparent, delicious and sparkly candy on your ears, wrists and decolletage. The perfect pairing for a festive holiday look!


Medium Gold Crystal Encrusted Liquid Link Earrings. $175

Ugly Christmas Sweaters?

Bundle up, grab a hot cocoa and come down to the South End this weekend! There's lots going on!

You can sport an 'ugly' Christmas sweater or you can visit M. Flynn for your holiday shopping, where you can find this Moss Mills Reindeer skinny belt-- festive and fashionable! We love these belts so much we also have them with owls, birds, fish and bows!

While you're here, come to the Seventh Annual SOWA Holiday Market, located at 74 Union Park Street in the Cathedral HS Gymnasium. The market features 80 unique artists and designers!

See you this weekend!