March 10, 2010

Arielle De Pinto


Arielle de Pinto's piece for the book launch at Colette

• Arielle is Canadian, but her surname has Portugese origins

• She created her first collection in the back of a car whilst driving from Montreal to set up home in New York

• Her crocheted metal masks are amazing, and quite scary

• Arielle says: ‘The physical act of crocheting chain is so disagreeable that I find myself engaged in a perpetual battle with the material.’

Alexis Bittar


Alexis Bittar's piece for the book launch at Colette

• Alexis is American.

• He made his name using Lucite to create handcarved pieces of jewellery.
He started out as a kid selling vintage jewellery on the streets of New York's East Village

• He now presides over a global empire but still creates every new prototype himself

• Alexis says: 'I’m so A.D.D that I move on straight away. When it comes to the possibility of creating something new and pushing the envelope I’m like a little kid.'

A Real Knee Trembler

Just back from Paris. Lots to report but for now (and until I get my head round it all) here's proof that a signing took place:


Photo by Karl Hab


I’d like to say that I wasn’t nervous but several factors suggest otherwise:

- I bought indigestion pills for the first time in my life.

- I washed down my pre-signing lunch (what I could eat of it) with half a bottle of Bach’s Rescue Remedy.

- I signed a whole bunch of books with the wrong (Feb, not March) date. Luckily Colette’s staff were on hand to point out the error and ask me to re-sign them in full view of a TV camera and a gaggle of curious shoppers.

- I’ve yet to see a photo of the event where I’m not doing a brilliant impression of a red-faced rabbit in the headlights.
To follow - I will – at long last – reveal the one-off, never-before-seen, specially-created-for-Colette-and-the-book-launch pieces of jewellery that flew in from all over the world. Phew! It was hard work, but so definitely worth it.

March 3, 2010

3 Is The Magic Number


BOOK STATS
33000 words
3333 emails
300 (+) photos
33 profiles
3-year gestation (and no epidural)

It can't be a coincidence, but what does it mean? Perhaps numerology holds the answer...

The theory's somewhat elusive, but it seems that if 3 crops up a lot in your in your numerology chart (?) you are: creative, socially active, artistic, very positive, optimistic, playful, happy, fun-loving, inspirational, imaginative, motivating, enthusiastic and uplifting.
You also have great verbal skills and a talent for self expression. You're a great communicator, you enjoy life and you don't take things too seriously.

It's all true!

Suitable career choices include entertainer (NO!), writer (UNCANNY), actor (EUCH!), musician (after 6 years of piano lessons Chopsticks remains the pinnacle of my achievements).

Hmmm....

But hang on, what's this?

"You are also disorganised, irresponsible, moody, emotional, vulnerable and cynical, you lack focus and discipline and you might have difficulties with handling money. You tend to scatter your energies, you often lack direction and it might be difficult for you to finish projects."

Numerology? Pah...

Inspired Design

Recently someone asked me what my favourite part the book-writing process was. Easy. It was learning what inspired each jeweller to be creative.

Receiving photos of finished pieces was great, but each time one of my* jewellers mailed me drawings of their work in progress, screen grabs of their sketch books or snaps of their moodbards, I’d get excited. Knots-in-the-tummy excited. It was like they’d let me in on a secret.

Having behind-the-scenes access to the creative process from start to finish helped me pinpoint each designer’s trademarks and idiosyncrasies. In turn I was able to write more sensitively about their work, which is important when you're profiling 33 people who essentially have the same job. I only hope they’ll agree when publishing day comes!



David & Martin are really into research and inspiration. Whether it’s the left over bits of a fried chicken meal, a pretty Japanese girl reading Vogue and chowing down on the tube, or the macabre tooth scene from Roman Polanski’s movie, The Tenant, these Swedish jewellers have a darkly humorous approach to design.

This is a mock up of the piece they made for the Colette exhibition

The skull in the finished piece will be 18k gold



Here's the sketch


Voila l'inspiration







All images courtesy of David and Martin


An abridged version of David's supersweet email

“The piece …. has been really interesting to work on. It made us analyze what we have been, what we are and what we want to be in the future.

Until now we have been working on kind of two different tracks. On one hand, a more futuristic and minimalistic and on the other hand a more ethnic theme with inspiration from nature, bones, animals, voodoo etc.

Our goal have for a long time been to mix this two to make it more unique, and that is what we try to do in this Colette piece!

It have become the start of something new, we call the style FAUNA FUTURA, it will be a mix of futurism and nature. It is a long story but I wanted to tell you because this process started when you invited us for the Colette exhibition so you are kind of a part of it!"


(So poetic – I get to be an inspiration to the people whose inspiration I wrote about!)


Before I overandout, congratulations to David on his new arrival – very likely his greatest creation to date!


*OK, I know they don’t belong to ME (more’s the pity) but peppering these posts with ‘the jewellers I wrote about’ or ‘the jewellers featured in my book’ could get annoying, no?

March 2, 2010

Watch The Birdie


As promised, here's the piece of jewellery that Yoshiko Creation Paris designed and flew over to Paris for the Colette book launch.

And when I say piece of jewellery, I mean the whole thing. It's a ring, fashioned from a 10cm-high bird which perches on the wearer's finger.

Yoshiko's a bit of a rare bird herself. She's self-taught in the dark arts of taxidermy (skills that she's put to good use here) and likens the process of designing jewellery to an 'act of poetry'. We've never met in person, but I suspect she's quite a laugh and I'm looking forward to making her acquaintance in Paris this weekend.

When I asked Yoshiko what her first professional break was, she said it was the moment Sarah from Colette took a shine to a beaded, African-inspired necklace Yoshiko had made.

I wonder what Sarah made of Tweetie Pie when he fluttered into her office last Sunday.

March 1, 2010

Cool And The Gang

Thanks to Josh Rubin and the rest of the Cool Hunters at Coolhunting.com for a great plug