Recent Posts
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Starry Starry Night
The life of Vincent van Gogh as a tragic genius holds too much drama for my liking, but his paintings of starry nights piqued my interest. In one of his letters to his friend, Eugene Boch, he described his study of Arles, depicted in the first painting below (The Starry Night over the Rhone):
"The town lighted with gas reflected in a blue river. Over it the starry sky with the Great Bear - a sparkling of pink and green on the cobalt blue field of the night sky, whereas the lights of the town and its ruthless reflections are red gold and bronzed green."
"The town lighted with gas reflected in a blue river. Over it the starry sky with the Great Bear - a sparkling of pink and green on the cobalt blue field of the night sky, whereas the lights of the town and its ruthless reflections are red gold and bronzed green."
Starry Night Over the Rhone, 1888
Starry Night, 1889
Inspired to create my own "Starry Night" piece, I started with two onion-cut briolettes of teal blue London blue topaz and slowly and surely, the rest of the gems began to fall into place. So here is the result ~ a petite cute little ensemble :-)
Friday, July 1, 2011
Birthstone Jewelry :: A New Love
I have always imagined birthstone jewelry to be boring, with simple stones on a fine chain or earring post to signify the month of birth. Well, my creativity was put to the test one day when J. approached me to create a necklace for her mother, using birthstones for herself, her baby girl and her mother.
For any jewelry artist, it is always the greatest blessing to have lots of room to work one's creativity and J. was wonderful in giving me that. We finally decided on a focal cluster weaving in golden and champagne citrines, royal purple and pink amethyst and hot pink topaz and the cluster thins away with the same gemstones sprinkled throughout the rest of the necklace.
W. recently got me to create a simple, sophisticated petite pair of earrings for her friend who was born in July. Using the traditional (onyx) and modern birthstones (ruby) with some accent stones, the result was a surprising pop of colors:
For any jewelry artist, it is always the greatest blessing to have lots of room to work one's creativity and J. was wonderful in giving me that. We finally decided on a focal cluster weaving in golden and champagne citrines, royal purple and pink amethyst and hot pink topaz and the cluster thins away with the same gemstones sprinkled throughout the rest of the necklace.
W. recently got me to create a simple, sophisticated petite pair of earrings for her friend who was born in July. Using the traditional (onyx) and modern birthstones (ruby) with some accent stones, the result was a surprising pop of colors:
