http://www.ShopCurious.com/ http://twitter.com/ShopCurious

Monday 9 August 2010

Silly season curiosities - the Smiley ring



I was first introduced to Smileys in the 1970s when they came over to the UK as a novel curiosity from America. They soon became a universal symbol for friendship, happiness and peace – bringing with them the rather irritating strapline, Have a Nice Day!

In the ‘70s there were two main types of Smiley face fashion ring available. One was yellow with black markings for the eyes and smile. Some of these were ‘mood’ rings that changed colour according to how you were feeling. Hmmm...



The other was silver coloured and sometimes made from recycled cutlery. The original retro Smiley ring from ShopCurious (in these photos) may well have been created from a stainless steel spoon. It’s usefully adjustable, so should fit most fingers - or toes, if you're that way inclined.

At the height of the fad in 1972, apparently around 50 million Smiley buttons were produced. However, the genuine rings are now rather rare, so look no further if you’re after some inexpensive heirloom jewellery.



Anyway, the most comprehensive information I could find on the history of the Smiley appears in an early 2009 article about the film Watchmen, written by Jon Savage in The Guardian – and is recommended reading for the uninitiated.

Over the decades, the Smiley has had many incarnations from advertising campaigns to Acid House associations - and is now digitalized as the emoticon.

So, what d’you think of these perennially sunny smiling faces – quite cool, a bit of silly fun, or curiously sinister? Do let me know.

Will you?

8 comments:

LenoreNeverM♡re said...

such a classic image...iconic indeed~
Fab new week Susan darling!

Jan said...

I always inwardly cringe when I use the smiley emoticon :)
but I can't think of any other way to express light heartedness.
Thus, I over use it I think.
Seriously, I do.
:)
No, I mean seriously.

ilikestuff said...

Hehe, I am reminded of the movie Forrest Gump, where Forrest creates the beloved smileyface icon accidentally by wiping mud from his face onto a t-shirt. Remember that?

ilikestuff said...

Hehe, I am reminded of the movie Forrest Gump, where Forrest creates the beloved smileyface icon accidentally by wiping mud from his face onto a t-shirt. Remember that?

Susan said...

hey, Susan- great blog, thanks for stopping by mine :) I am a follower now too :)
xoxo

Sabina said...

Lovely blog!
I would like to invite you to mine - I think you will really like it :))
Also, the main reason for my invitation is that I want to invite you to join my Challenge - just click on the link at the very top of my left sidebar and see what it is - I hope you will find it exciting :)
In any case - I hope you enjoy my blog and of course feel free to follow me if you do! ;)

Much love,
Sabina.
xxx

Sabina said...

Thank you for your lovely comment - and you're right, I'm definitely very curious about whether you'll enter or not... I really hope you will :))
xx

Leah said...

So cute!

Luvs!