Birthdays, Aries Energy
& Everyday Armor

I absolutely love birthdays. Mine falls during Aries season, and I've always thought there's something pretty great about getting to celebrate another trip around the sun. Whether you're someone who plans your birthday months in advance or would prefer everyone keep the singing to a minimum, making it through another year deserves a little recognition.

Jewelry has always made sense to me as a birthday gift because it sticks around. Flowers are beautiful, dinner is wonderful and cake is obviously important, but a ring or necklace you choose to mark your 40th, 50th or 73rd birthday can still be on your body years later. It becomes attached to that particular version of you and everything that was happening in your life when you chose it.

And you absolutely do not need to wait for someone else to buy it for you. Some of my favorite appointments are with women who have decided exactly what they want for their birthday and are making it happen themselves. Maybe you've had your eye on a particular piece for months, want to add something new to a ring stack, or you've reached one of those birthdays that feels worthy of something particularly good.

I am, in fact, an Aries

If you know me well, learning that I'm an Aries may not come as much of a surprise. Aries is the first sign of the zodiac, arriving with the beginning of spring when daylight has overtaken darkness and everything starts pushing outward and forward again. Traditionally ruled by Mars and symbolized by the Ram, Aries is associated with courage, initiative, independence, directness, momentum and the instinct to move toward something rather than wait around for it to happen.

I can see plenty of that in myself and in the way I've built CMD. I started making jewelry before I had any idea it would become my career, and eventually started a business while I was still young without a perfectly mapped-out plan for where it would go. More than two decades later, I've moved studios, crossed the country, rebuilt parts of this business more than once, followed new ideas before I knew exactly where they would lead and kept forging ahead through plenty of uncertainty.

There have certainly been moments when a little more patience might have served this Aries well. But I'm also grateful for the part of me that has always been willing to begin, take the risk and figure out the rest along the way. That energy has shaped a lot of my life as a designer and entrepreneur.

The Aries Ring

That made creating an Aries Ring for our Zodiac Series especially fun for me. The ring is a slender 2.5mm sterling silver band with a carved monotone channel and a single 1mm diamond, available in both our signature round and square shapes. It's minimal, direct and strong without needing a lot of embellishment.

I love how appropriate that feels for Aries. The carved channel creates a clear line through the silver, while that tiny diamond becomes a concentrated point of light within the design. It has a sense of direction and energy to it without turning the symbolism into something overly literal.

I've always thought of jewelry as a kind of everyday armor, and that idea feels especially fitting for a sign associated with courage, movement and meeting life head-on. Wear the Aries Ring by itself, work it into a larger stack or pair it with other rings that carry their own stories. You certainly don't need to be an Aries to connect with what the design represents.

The Zodiac Series, the CMD way

The Aries Ring is part of our growing Zodiac Series, a special Ring Bar within The Celestial Collection. Each piece takes a different approach to the sign that inspired it, translating personality and symbolism through material, proportion, stones, texture and form rather than simply placing a zodiac glyph on a ring.

That's what makes this series so much fun for me as a designer. I'm interested in asking what a sign feels like and how that quality might become a piece of jewelry that still looks unmistakably CMD. The result is a collection of rings that can be meaningful because of your Sun sign, someone you love, another important placement in your chart or simply because the story behind a particular design resonates with you.

And because they're part of The Ring Bar, they're meant to play well with others. Mix your zodiac ring into a stack you've been building for years, pair different signs together or let one symbolic piece become the starting point for something entirely new.

Buy yourself the birthday jewelry

Which brings me right back to birthdays. I'm firmly in favor of buying yourself something beautiful simply because you've made another trip around the sun. Maybe the last year changed everything, you accomplished something enormous, survived something difficult or simply know yourself a little better than you did twelve months ago.

You don't need to wait for someone else to recognize that. Add something new to your stack, choose a piece from the Zodiac Series, finally buy the jewelry you've been returning to for months or use your birthday as an excuse to make something more personal.

We've created Custom and Reconstruction jewelry and Special Occasion pieces to mark all kinds of milestones. If there's old jewelry sitting in your jewelry box that you're ready to see differently, a birthday can also be the perfect reason to finally start a Reconstruction project. The best birthday jewelry doesn't necessarily need to announce the milestone to anyone else. Sometimes it only needs to remind you.

Make sure we know your birthday!

Since I love birthdays so much, I also want CMD to celebrate yours with you. When you join the CMD Bucks Rewards Program, make sure you submit your birthday through the form on our Rewards page. We'll have a little something waiting for you when your special day rolls around.

There are plenty of other ways to earn CMD Bucks throughout the year, too, including shopping with us and referring friends. Think of them as a little encouragement to put toward the piece you've been eyeing, because I certainly don't think you need another person to give you permission to celebrate yourself.

So yes, I still want to know your birthday. Sign up for CMD Rewards and tell us when it is, then start thinking about what you might want to add to your jewelry box this year. And if you'd like a little help figuring that out, you can always book an appointment with me in Asbury Park or virtually. Birthday crown optional.

Here's to another trip around the sun,
Colleen

© Colleen Mauer Designs. All rights reserved.
Published: April 9, 2021
Updated: August 24, 2026