Jewelry and fashion also go the other way. What happens when function is the only basic that is concerned? We often find cookie-cutter designs, everything is virtually the same, what is the point of making something different if we have made everything simply functional.

In jewelry this is way overdone, function or maybe lack of ambition, jewelry tends to look very similar. Things like, hey lets put this colored stone in the middle and put two diamonds on the side. Then thousands of other jewelers do the same thing, and who is to blame them, if they did something a little too far out, who would buy it? This is where the jewelry chains have really succeeded, everything has to be the same, they can create a formula, and keep doing the same old thing. This is just function, the ring is simple, classic, and comfortable to wear. Then why do anything different? As I said, avant guarde jewelry often isn’t very comfortable. This is why good design is so important, not only is it comfortable, and but you can have something different.

What happens when art marries function? A beautiful thing happens, they create beautiful children -- the kind that you would see on covers of magazines.

In order to create a good design, you must consider function just as much as looks. In jewelry as in the fashion world this is not the case. How many times have we seen the runway models with some funky dress that would not be practical to wear anywhere in the real world? Could you imagine being at a fancy party, the only place I could even begin to image that these dresses could be used, and because the dress has these huge projecting feathers that keep smacking into everyone. She would surely be the life of the party, the kind of life you would want to stay away from.

This runway fashion is often beautiful, it is a form of art, so I do not knock the fashion world. Because without venturing into the unknown, how would things ever change. While the clothing is impractical, to helps to create other designs, it inspires. With jewelry I often find that the same is true, many things that are beautiful, a ring perhaps, are often uncomfortable to wear all the time. Why might that ring be uncomfortable? Well, perhaps it is the way that the stones were set, the prongs might be cutting into your other fingers, but alas, it does look beautiful.