I have only one memory of my grandfather.

On each visit he would stand up again after about five minutes, and say: "Yes, yes, I hear it again."( a Dutch way of saying, 'I'm out of here') and left to go to his bedroom.

 My grandfather passed away and left his signet ring to my father.

Out of a sense of duty he accepted the gift; however, he never wore the ring. I guess it brought back too many memories. When my thumb was big enough, my father saw his chance to give the ring to me. I guess he didn't mind that I also chose not to wear the ring.  

My father has chosen not to resemble his father. He never gives up the happiness of others is more important and he always has his emotions under control. That he never gives up is beautiful but it sometimes gets in the way of his happiness, and this is also true for not expressing his emotions.

 The ring has now been transformed into a work of art. And a black page has been turned into something wonderful. I keep hoping that such a transformation will happen for my father.

 I just crawled into the artwork to get outside the box. I glanced back at what has shaped me. As a son you may have a resemblance to your father, but it can also bring you to take a different position in life. Through this transformation from father to son, I have found true happiness.

Thanks Eveline, for the  opportunity to seal my family history.

When I was 39 and had lived wild enough, I met Antoine. For him it was kind of the same: the beginning of a new era. We married only six months later and lived happily ever after, in Amsterdam and Berlin.

Well, not really forever, in my case: After twenty years, I found my beloved one in intensive care. The doctor handed me his private things. His wedding ring I put on my right middle finger, afraid of losing it, and next to my own. At that very moment I realized that he would never wake up again.

Since then, I have worn both our rings side by side on my right hand, never taking them off.

This story, though, has a mirror side. It is the bad flip side of my own sadly ending romantic story. This flipside concerns my old mother. I thought it unfair that she, who had not enjoyed life for many decades, not with my father and not on her own after his death, could survive my Antoine.

She died two months after him, at the age of 95. That was somehow okay. 

When I cleaned out her apartment, I found a box with two wedding rings. How good that I opened each little box, because you never know. But in that same moment I realized, I never saw her wear her wedding ring after my father's self-inflicted death. Worse, she had erased every memory of him. She never mentioned my father since then. Not a single picture of him was present in her sitting room - where as I had surrounded myself with pictures of Antoine, and of him and me together.

Just those days I met Eveline. She told me about her Art for Gold project. That was not only the beginning of a beautiful friendship. I gave her my parents' wedding rings to melt for the Project, which was not really a sacrifice : Hadn't they both betrayed the idea of love? And then Eveline painted me, including my right hand: The wedding rings of Antoine and me, this sign of our eternal love. 

I was seventeen when I fell head over heels for Martijn and we started a relationship.

He was a few years older then me and had more life experience. In remember sitting in the train when he said: "Oh you really have narrow fingers, your ring finger is just as wide as this part of my little finger!." As time past by I paid no further attention to this remark but when Christmas came,  I received a beautiful ring of yellow and white gold, designed by Martijn. It made a perfect match with my ring finger! Martijn was a romantic fool and when we were together,  just the two of us, we had the best of times. However, if there were other people  around, his jealous side would often appear. My parents saw how deeply I was suffering under this and told me more than once that this was not a good base for a relationship. Partly because of the pressure from my parents, almost two years later, I broke up with Martijn.

I was heartbroken and literally, sick of it! Because my choice was influenced by my parents, it has taken many years before I could give this a place. If I had not let myself be influenced I would undoubtedly have come to the same conclusion and maybe I would have come to peace with it faster.

Now 25 years later, this painful story has turned into a life lesson.

I am a happily married mother of two wonderful sons living a wonderful life and grateful for all the beautiful things Martijn and me experienced together.

I sincerely hope his life turned out well for him. 

I am glad that this beautiful ring found such a special destination in Art for gold.

Patrick:
I inherited the two rings from my mother's best friend Patrick. Patrick and my Mother were friends from before I was born and together they had a great deal of fun. Patrick was extremely flamboyant, did not hide his homosexuality and was passionate about jewelry. Because of his love of jewelry he acquired a large collection.

I remember during my 4th birthday party Patrick and my Mother put on a puppet show and all the kids sat on the ground in the living room to watch the show. During the performance my Mother and Patrick were having so much fun together they ended up in fits of laughter, tears were rolling down their cheeks, and they could not stop. Needless to say the performance suffered and the kids were left wondering what was so funny and why the story made no sense?

Patrick unfortunately passed away during my teenage years but I know how wonderful he would find it that his "little Anouk" was getting a portrait.

"Patrick, With this I would like to thank you for the wonderful time we had together and hopefully you can follow all this from up there on your pink cloud." 

Love Anouk

 The story behind the wedding ring engraved RUUD 1-4-1977:
I got married on April the first 1977.

It was a so called Vredelingen Marriage ; at that time if the man was bringing in the money for the household you didn´t have to sign up for military service, as there were enough volunteers. Ruud, had just graduated and got his first job, I was a student. We would never actually get married (hippies :)), but this was a welcome reason. He did not want to do military service and also didn´t wanted to get the s5 to keep out of this duty ( meaning you are unbalanced but you also lost your chance for many jobs with an S5).

We had no money, we had been living on one scholarship for three years. But some convention was handed down to us :); to get married you need two rings, so we bought them.

After a wedding normally also comes the honeymoon. We went hitchhiking and partial by train to a low budget camping in Florence. Oh man it was so cold there, each had three pajamas on, a real honeymoon . And bad luck! Ruud lost the wedding ring, it slipped from his numb fingers when the train slowed down. Immediately we found that not such a bad luck; we declared and specified it to the insurance company, as we were in need for money:) ....

Eventually we divorced.

There where reasons for this breakup but not that we didn´t love each other. Life sometimes takes you in a different direction.

I still have my wedding ring and find Art for Gold a great project to donate this ring to.

A sister of my father, my aunt became my godmother at birth. I got her name, but luckily my parents changed it a little​​. Her name was Alie and they called me, Lida. (Alida is my Christian name). 

Aunt Alie was a concept in our home by her mannerisms which made her very special and hilariously funny. I got the usual presents and attention from my godmother even after I had stopped believing.

Aunt Alie unfortunatly became ill and died. The most personal jewelry came to me. A necklace, ring and watch, all made of gold. For years they were in a box, but now it has found a perfect destination, Art for Gold. 

The ring without stone is my wedding ring. I am now divorced for years from my first husband, Rob. After a courtship of 15 years, we bought a house, and yes, we even got married. After half a year it didn’t work out as we hoped.

But no one can take away those 15 years!

Lida

It was 1996.

In a magazine I read the Christmas wish of Liliana, a Cuban refugee who was living in Holland. She had not seen her family for a long time.

Liliana wondered if there was someone vacationing in Cuba, who would visit her family for her and take some photos of her newborn niece, parents and sister. I loved to do that for her.

Her Cuban family gave me a warm welcome. They were shocked when they saw my photos of Liliana, who had cut her curly hair short and dyed it red.

I had a great time with her family. I remember dancing in the small flat, the pig on their neighbour’s balcony and the tragic stories of a country in decay.

In Cuba I bought this gold ring, a souvenir of a special holiday. Now I pass it on.

Some Cuban warmth for Art for Gold.

And ... Liliana and I are still friends!

My inspiration for donating this piece of gold came from my sister-in-law, Hanneke de Vries. It seems like a wonderful project. We had used two of my old rings to create a special ring for my mother-in-law's 70th birthday. Not all of the gold was used for the new ring; hence this small piece that I'm holding between my fingers. ART FOR GOLD seemed the perfect destination for the little piece that was left. 

Love, Ione Hope.

We received the sad news that Hope is no longer among us. We wish her loved ones all the best. 

 The bracelet belonged to my mother. After her death, along with a number of more classic Jewelry, I got this thin simple bracelet from her jewelry box. 

At the time I found that this thin bracelet suited me very beautiful; As I was also thin and vulnerable then.

The same is true for the sterile ring, it was the only ring I've ever gotten from the father of my children and the only piece of jewelry that I also have worn for a long time. I saw it as my wedding ring though we really got married a few years later, without wedding rings :-). 

The thicker ring is a ring of someone I do not know and therefore I am not emotional attached to it.

However, I think that, because it used to be one's wedding ring it should get a beautiful destination like Art for Gold!

This ring belonged to Evert, my mothers second husband.

A bit of a simple bloke whom my mother got married to a few years after my parents divorced and I had already moved out of the house. I never got to know him well and never got a bond with him.

He died just before my mother did and his ring remained with us allthough it has no emotional value for me.

I think it is nice that I can donate this ring to the project where I have much affinity for.

Rainbow Unicorn, Anna,Christian and Alex gave their golden best in creating this magnificent Art for Gold website.

They received this charcoal drawing in return.

Martin Rettschlag is a German Cinematographer/ photographer based in Berlin.

When Martin heard about the Art for Gold project he immediately offered his help and did a wonderful job by making the photos of the 1% pure goodness ring that you can find in our online shop.

In return he received this portrait.