1st Bay Area Studio Show coming soon!

It’s sooo exciting to be planning the very first Bay Area Dominion of Light Jewels Studio Show, which will be held here at Emeryville Warehouse Lofts, (an award winning building designed by the fabulous David Baker), 1500 Park Ave. Emeryville, CA. The dates and times are Saturday, August 14th — 11:00 to 5:00 and Sunday, August 15th — 11:00 to 3:00.

I’ve been truly, madly, obsessively creating new pieces for all the collections especially for the show. Beautiful, magical, wonderful things made from antique findings (some from nearly one hundred years ago), bronze, copper, and silver metals with luminous pearls, and vintage stones, evocative of mystery and romance, myth and far away places.

A few of the new pieces will be posted on the website before the August 14 show; and there will be many more pieces premiered at the studio in person. I’ll let you know when the new pieces are posted! And check in again for continuing info about the show!

And also totally exciting is that two friends with marvelous things will be joining us!

Laura Jackson, of Blue Bungalow Cards, will be at the studio with us on August 14^th. Laura is an Oakland resident and owner and creator of Blue Bungalow Cards, unique handmade greeting cards with Vintage Americana appeal.

Laura’s greeting cards are each a work of art—lovingly layered and embellished with paper, ink, stamps, ribbons, brads, eyelets, flowers, gems, and glitter, and incorporating vintage or retro art graphics. Many of her whimsical collage style cards use art and embellishments from the Alameda Antique Faire and other Bay Area antique venues. Her vintage holiday themes include Christmas, Halloween, Valentines Day, and Easter. Laura’s cards also incorporate Hawaiiana, Asian, and Art Deco inspired art. They are gorgeous!

On Sunday, Donna and Ken Chasser of DK Vintage Posters will be joining us with posters from their fabulous collection.

DK Vintage Posters specializes in authentic French and Italian vintage advertising posters. Among the posters they carry are original works by famous artists including Cheret, Mucha, Toulouse-Lautrec, Cappiello, Boccasile, Steinlen, Gruau, and Razzia. They also have a wide selection of posters by Marcello Dudovich (1878-1962) whose work is among the most notable of Italian and French vintage poster artists.

From the 1890s, advertising posters were based around different brands of beverages: cognac, champagne, wine, soda, or places to drink them: bars, dance halls (like the famous Moulin Rouge), restaurants, and foods such as pasta and chocolate.

Vintage posters also represented airlines, hotels, publications, travel agents and foreign countries that encouraged visitors through poster art. In the last few decades, poster art evolved into even more of an art form than an advertising forum. Richard Avedon (the Beatles), and Milton Glaser (Bob Dylan) made important contributions to the poster genre.

These stunning vintage posters are becoming rarer, and are more and more collectible as time goes by. You can go to their website to see the range of posters available! dkvintage posters

I love this Andy Warhol, Chanel No. 5!

Edited: July 31st, 2010

Ladies and their Jewels

“Any girl who was a lady would not even think of having such a good time that she did not remember to hang on to her jewelry.” Anita Loos, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

And we do, us ladies, hang on to our jewelry . . . after all, we know that, besides just making us feel good— beautiful, wonderful jewels add yet another dimension to own powers of attraction . . .

Edited: July 23rd, 2010

The Red Balloon . . . and other “floating jewels”

Balloons — recently I saw a black and white photo of a man floating by balloon through chasms of hi rise buildings — very dreamlike, and became intrigued . . .

Usually we think of balloons just as party accessories for kids, but really there’s something much more wonderful about them — because as they bob and float above us on their strings— they seem to possess a kind of freedom. If we just let go, they float away somewhere, carefree and bright as jewels in the sky. They’ve been around since the 1700′s and will probably be here for another 300 years at least—

Two images from the famous French film — The Red Balloon

Purely whimsical hot air balloon—

A marvelous French drawing —

Like floating jewels lit by the sun—

Edited: July 16th, 2010

On the Orient Express with Hercule Poirot!

Last night we watched Masterpiece Theater’s show on the legendary and uber-luxurious Orient Express.

The show was beautifully produced and stars actor David Souchet, (who plays Hercule Poirot) an absolutely charming and adorable man traveling from London to Prague on the fabled train — just as M. Poirot did in Agatha Christie’s novel Murder on the Orient Express — appearing next on Masterpiece Theater.

You can watch it online at pbs.org — what a wonderful journey through numerous countries in western Europe! And for those of us who don’t have the fortune it takes to make the trip — a lovely vicarious thrill!

You can also take a peak at the Dominion of Light Jewels necklace named after the glamorous Orient Express (featured as well on the sidebar) . . .

Edited: July 12th, 2010

Unconventional—

I don’t know about you, but I’ve always loved things that are different . . . mysterious, whimsical, bohemian, offbeat—things that are considered unique — not new so much as just straying from the ordinary.

Even though we aren’t frowned upon for doing our own thing anymore — well at least in those places that are blessedly liberal — many of us still find ourselves towing the fashion line.

Case in point — dare I say it? — all these hideously huge necklaces that corporate retail has pushed for the last few seasons — they’ve become — well — conventional. And I suspect they’ll end up hidden in the bottom of a drawer somewhere when the fashion industry suddenly decrees we should all wear tiny necklaces.

And speaking of ”haves and must haves”, alas, even fashionistas get confused — in one issue of a well-known fashion rag, I saw a list of “must haves and get rid ofs” that contradicted their own advertisers. The very style of clothing they were telling us to dump was being advertised in a huge full page ad —

So I believe in finding your own style — by definition unconventional — and for that we have much inspiration!

Think George Sand, the famous novelist of the 18oo’s—and Chopin’s lover — who took a man’s name and wore mens clothes, scandalizing the society of her day. She was unconventional —

Katharine Hepburn and Marlene Dietrich wore mens’ clothes too — it got them attention in the 1930′s just as George Sand did in the 1830′s —

Carnaby Street, London in the 60′s, a revolt a against the buttoned down and crinolined 50′s—

And then of course there were the much maligned, but fabulous in my book, hippies — who dared venture into their own mythic, magical fashion and highly unconventional landscape —

In jewelry there was of course, Coco, who invented “costume jewelry” — unconventional —

More derring-do from the Flappers, who in a departure from long heavy Victorian styles wore their dresses short and cut their hair even shorter—

And Isadora Duncan (before the flappers dreamed of baring their limbs) threw off her corset and danced barelegged and barefoot upon stages all over the world—to the consternation of some and the cheers of others— extremely unconventional —

The 80′s gave us Annie Hall and Madonna, definitely unconventional—

Alas, today we have Lady Gaga—who does a good job of appearing unconventional . . . is she, or isn’t she?

. . . in the end I think being unconventional is really a matter of allowing ourselves the freedom to be who we really are — where the poetry of our souls dwells, uniquely and mysteriously within each of us . . .

Morning in Calabria

Edited: July 7th, 2010

Happy 4th of July!

14 Reasons to love the 4th:

Parades, red hot firecrackers, hot dogs, smoke wafting from grills, snowballs, red, white and blue, stars & stripes, a summer white dress, white roses, red sails in the sunset, freedom to speak your mind, the beach, red jewels, deep summer blue skies when you rest your head on the pillow after too much of everything this coming holiday night . . .