The McClellan Claddagh

October 201414 karat white gold A dear friend of mine had been telling me for years—years—that when he finally proposed to his long-term girlfriend, he wanted me to make the ring, and that the ring should be a claddagh. For nearly an equal number of years, I had been telling him no.This sounds like a terrible start to a story about an engagement ring, I'll grant you—but since claddaghs are so readily available elsewhere, I had little interest in copying the style. This was, as it turns out, a myopic point of view, as what my friend really wanted me to do was to reinterpret the 300-year-old design in a way that uniquely captured his and his intended's spirit.He was right, I was wrong.As I meditated on their relationship, I wanted to emphasize the manner in which they totally embrace each other and give of themselves. I re-oriented the hands in a gesture of both presentation and protection, with the heart filling the palms. There's also something freer about this arrangement—in the class