When HBO TV show Game of Thrones, first launched in April 2011 we instantly became hooked on it. The show is based on the novel fantasy series, A Song of Ice And Fire. Although this makes many people think that this show is a fully based on fantasy,the truth is that the problems and issues the characters face in the show are quite realistic. This is one of the reasons that the show became so popular so quickly.
One of the first scenes in the books as well as the show Game of Thrones, consists of Eddard (Ned) Stark, warden of the North and patriarch of the Stark family, being called into the forest by his sons. Upon arriving, there is a dead direwolf whose throat is pierced by a stag's antler. The Direwolf is the house sigil of the Stark family and the Stag is the sigil of the Baratheon family, which contains the King and monarchy.
The symbolism here is overpowering. The stag murdering the direwolf is a foreshadowing of the harm of which the royals will cause to Stark family in the future.Beside the direwolf body in the forest there are six direwolf pups. Ned Stark has six children. and eventually the pups are adopted by them. Each Stark child gets a pup to raise, since the dire wolf is the sigil of the house.
As the puppies grow, their fate prophecies that of their owner.
The direwolves are known to be social animals, living and traveling in packs. Starks family is are also always putting their family first in an effort to survive. When the family becomes separated members of the Stark family get killed, becoming rare around Westeros just like the direwolves that are practically extinct too.
Because the characters are so great you can easily relate to their problems. The entire team of Silverlab filled the fan club of Stark’s family and fell in love with their storyline.We got greatly inspired by beautiful designs and intricate medieval fantasy ornaments, clothes and armor. The series is filled with jewelry too, so we instantly wanted to make something representative of Stark family.We decided to make a ring appropriate for a true Stark and base it, naturally, on their house sigil and motto “Winter is coming”.We’ve gathered a lot of images from the show and highlighted and marked all the details from the props that were in the show already, such as shields and banners that we thought were important to keep in the jewelry design too.
We decided that we wanted the entire direwolf head to sit on the top of the figer and it's fur to continue wrapping around it and forming the ring. The images from Stark's tapestry in one of the episodes played a huge role in this decision. Fur is spiky and looks like you can cut yourself if you touch it.It gave a sharp and brutal edge to the style of the sigil, and we needed to include it into jewelry. Konstantinos Kirsanidis, our designer, also spent hours studying the wolf's face anatomy teeth and jaws. As a result the direwolf's jaw has very accurate number of sharp teeth and even the insides of the jaw have wavy lines as dogs and wolves do.
Each fur spike had to be fitted into one another forming a smooth running coat of sharp looking armor. The entire direwolf model had to be divided in several parts for production purposes, each part needed to fit one into another perfectly, even the slightest extra millimeter could create problem in further casting in metal and mold making.Everything had been checked carefullyover an over again. The inner side of the ring was embellished with Stark's motto - "Winter is Coming". We've decided to go with the typeface that looked like the main titles of the HBO show. It would be instantly recognisable by all fans and had a nice medieval touch to it.
After thorough check the parts were made in wax and casted in metal. The metal prototype had to be prepared for making molds out of it, so every part was checked again and fitted one into another and polished to perfection.The soft silicone molds were made after that. Finally we could recast the direwolf ring in silver again. The final result was exactly as it was designed and we were very happy it turned out as expected.
While making the House stark Direwolf ring we decided to make a matching necklace as well and also to experiment with gemstones in the eyes of the Direwolf. The design quickly became very popular with our customers and today we offer many custom options for the ring and necklace.The ring is available in sterling silver and with gemstone eyesincluding stones such red rubies, green emeralds, blue and yellow sapphires as well as various colors of Cubic Zirconia (CZ stones). Both the ring and the necklace are available with black rhodium plating finish.
Jodi Pollitt: "Just got my new ring today and I am over the moon happy with it. Words cannot describe how much I love it! ...Your stuff is made so well I just love it..." Read Full Customer Review Tanya Sobchuk: "I want to thank you so much for the ring and necklace. I love both so much! They are so beautiful, I can't put it into words..." Read Full Customer Review