Instead of swapping between rings and earrings for different occasions, why not keep the framework and trade out the colorful key element: the featured jewel.

Inspired by Lego and designed by Hintlab, these interchangeable creations feature all different kinds of options, from simple translucent and opaque blocks to growing crystal shapes and stamped message surfaces.

The blocks, like LEGO, can be stackable to, allowing for hybrid creations that evolve over time. Alternatively, the add-ons can fit flush with their settings, looking like a more permanent stone.

Some of the more colorful options may work well for kids, but the idea can appeal to adults as well who are sick of making sure all of their various jewelry fits, and want something minimal and simple.

Most jewelry tells some kind of a story (about its origin if nothing else) but these pieces are a bit more explicit, featuring tales of structures, characters and actions in miniature built environments.

Architectural designer Artur Dabrowsk produces rings, cuffs, necklaces and bracelets that revolve “around the concept of ‘depth’ in terms of formal language (shadow lines, composition, depth of field) as well as in meaning (details, storytelling).”

Whether he is crafting mysterious staircases to nowhere or endlessly looped brick arches, each piece involves careful attention architectural detail (including theoretical structural load calculations) and is available in brass, bronze or silver.

The brick ring specifically goes back to his days in architecture school — “there is something very tactile and nostalgic that give [bricks] both timeless function and meaning,” says the designer.

“I was raised in a brick clad apartment building in Brooklyn,” he explains, “so I associated the brick wall as a shelter for my introverted childhood. The arch became a metaphoric portal through which I could turn the corner, open up, and express myself while still proud of my introverted self.”

Dabrowsk also has a thing for rabbits, which are something he has sketched idly for a long time and has since started to include as characters in his tiny built environments. “I started drawing them in the margins of my notebooks during grade school and personify them to express thoughts, situations or feelings I was having.”

“I think the imagery of it being personified is playful — the rabbit is cute, hops around, eats, multiplies… and lives naively in this world.” Even here, though, he is conscious of real-life conditions – the suspended rabbit above hands from what would, in reality, be the bare minimum load-support beam across an abyss.

Fans of architectural jewelry should also take a peak at this series of wearable skylines, featuring famous scenes and settings (though in a more two-dimensional format) from around the world.

Jewelry for urbanists has taken a new turn with these silver, gold and platinum cityscapes, each featuring iconic buildings, monuments and landmarks from major metropolitan centers around the world.

Ola Shekhtman, a goldsmith from North Carolina, has crafted rings around cities including San Francisco, Boston, New York City, Paris, Amsterdam, Stockholm, Berlin and Hong Kong, selling them online via Etsy.

Growing up in Siberia, Ola wanted to travel the world, eventually visiting London and San Francisco before moving to New York.

With the help of 3D-modeling software, she created this series to capture the spirit of places she has been and those she yet wishes to visit. Buyers can likewise decide whether to pick places they live, favorite past points of travel or goal-oriented rings for desired future destinations.

If you feel like it’s a little rude to yell “Watch out!” when you’re running down the sidewalk and approaching a slow group of people, the gentle ring of a bicycle bell could be just as effective and slightly more polite. A product called Runbell takes those iconic little brass bells off the handlebars and puts them onto your fingers so you can courteously warn pedestrians on shared pathways as you approach, even when you’re on your own two feet.

Lightweight and frills-free, the bell is made of brass for optimal sound and comes slightly oversized with silicone inserts so you can make it fit just right. That way, the rings remain adjustable even for cold days when you’re wearing gloves. It weighs less than an ounce and features a striker that can be activated from any angle, though it’s loudest if you pull it straight back.

The Runbell was funded on Kickstarter and is now available for purchase in men’s and women’s versions for $25. It’s easy to imagine this in use not just by runners, but frustrated native New Yorkers and other city denizens who just want people to stop blocking sidewalks staring at their phones or gawking at the scenery.

These 10 abandoned jewelry stores, designed to be secure oases of luxury retailing, are now as lonely as a busted ring that’s forever lost its sparkle.

Jewels Of Denial

(images via: Xaxor and Big Bend Now)

When is an abandoned jewelry store NOT an abandoned jewelry store? When it’s Prada Marfa, a so-called “pop architectural land art project” sitting all by its lonesome on the side of U.S. Route 90 between Valentine and Marfa, west Texas. Artists Elmgreen and Dragset set up the $80,000 faux luxury goods store on October 1st of 2005 with the intention it would be neither maintained nor repaired. Instead, the passage of time alone would slowly degrade the “store” back to its constituent materials.

(image via: StyleLinkin’)

A mere three days after the sculpture was finished (complete with an interior stocked with handbags and 14 right-footed shoes), vandals broke into the building and graffitied the outside walls after stealing the contents… hope they have 14 right feet. Subsequent acts of vandalism have further marred the exhibit and angered the artists (who really should have known better). Seems like Prada Marfa’s degradation is not going as slowly as originally planned.

A Pauled

(images via: baby cat)

As jewelry stores are usually owned by deep-pocketed individuals, extra expense is typically expended not only on security but on creating a luxurious first impression for potential buyers. The downside, of course, is when the stores are closed, abandoned and/or re-purposed as a successor business, the original embellishments are not easily changed. Such is the case with the former Paule Jewelry store in Burlington, IA, as photo-documented by Flickr user baby cat.

Hell’s Waiting Room

(image via: Kei Teay)

Orlando’s Fashion Square Mall has seen better days and more than a few of its stores have jumped ship for better prospects elsewhere. FSM is making the best of a bad situation, however, having converted the abandoned and unnamed jewelry store above into a waiting room. Waiting for what, we can’t say. Kudos to Kei Teay for the sad soft-focus photo above.

Hardly Working

(images via: Peter Bartlett LRPS EFIAP and Stockport.co.uk)

Jeweler Ian Marsden established his jewelry store in 1969, according to the weathered old-style sign still affixed to the storefront. The sign also heralds the presence of a “Working Jeweler” inside… don’t believe it! Sometime before March of 2013, Marsden closed the Stockport, UK retail landmark and left anything not portable behind.

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Diamonds Arent Forever 10 Abandoned Jewelry Stores