Set in Vintage Stones: Katrin's Renaissance Jewellery

In today's cyber tech, fast paced world, you do come across people -and I count myself among those- who have a true appreciation of arts and crafts of days gone by and a grudging respect for the unhurried labour of love that was the requisite back then for any craft. But it is very seldom you come across someone who goes the extra mile and actively seeks to master an age old craft to recreate some of the romance, glamour and éclat of olden days. Now these people are truly a rare find, but their craft is even rarer because they unwittingly follow the aesthetics, techniques and rigorous standards set by master artisans of the past which sets them and their craft head and shoulder above their contemporaries.

One such artist for me, who was a absolutely delight to find thanks to our ever expanding cyber world (it does have its merits!) is Estonian jewellery maker Katrin. When I first saw her designed jewellery, I was instantly struck by how different it looked from others -in its intricate detail, in the colourful juxtaposition of tightly woven beautiful beads and the rich, deep sparkle of loosely dangling rhinestones and lustrous pearls - which I later learnt, were all vintage, sourced from far and wide by Katrin herself.  Each piece of jewellery is handmade, lovingly set with Katrin's brilliant eye for aesthetics and attention to detail with vintage beads and pearls from Japan, France, Czech....she is  forever sourcing and adding to her collection (you can find out more about her brilliant vintage beads collection and her designs on her blog Renaissance of Jewellery (http://mdm-beadalot.blogspot.ae)

In Katrin's own words:

My inspiration comes from usually the materials (rhinestones, beads and pearls), but also other designers, vintage dresses, architecture, and... dreams. The Victorian/Georgian seed-pearl jewellery, mourning jewellery and Bohemian filigree jewellery are always in the back of my mind. When you combine these, you'll have the 1900-30s French and Czech designer styles. And these 1920-30s designers inspired Miriam Haskell in return. So - everything is connected.

I have tried different techniques. When I began the journey there was no tutorials or books. After some galleries of handmade jewellery emerged on the web I looked at the photos and tried to understand how it was made. It's seems a bit silly now, but I kind of had to re-invent everything because there was no-one who could teach me. It taught me patience and that everything is possible when there's something you want to achieve.

I'm usually asked alot who was my teacher or what book or tutorial did I use. They're a bit disappointed that I can't name anyone/-thing. I started from almost nothing...
...it started, when I was a girl and I was re-organizing my mothers jewellery box with her. There were two identical beaded Czech necklaces and my mother gave me the broken one telling me that I could do what ever I wanted with it. And, so I did.

Katrin is a self-taught, hobbyist jewellry maker (who day jobs as a teacher) and has a real passion and in depth knowledge of vintage beads and a very keen aesthetics for their setting and that shows in her designed jewellery. If you know nothing about her and come across her jewellery, like I did initially, you will feel something amazing, something different in her craft and that is the past rearing its head because she pays homage to the glamour and elegance of the 1940s 1950s era - the vintage beads add authenticity and give a richness and flair to her designs. Although Katrin has been designing and making jewellery for seventeen years, she has only made her designs accessible to retail in the last five years through her company MdmButik on Etsy.com. Her jewellery is romantic, whimsical and utterly gorgeous - every women's dream!

I have the huge pleasure of owing a small (and growing) number of Katrin's designed jewellery and get raving complements on those every time I have worn them across three continents - which just goes to show the universality of art and crafts, they are understood and appreciated because they speak the same language wherever you go - of elegance, beauty and loving labour.

Revival of the Ritzy: MIRIAM HASKELL's Costume Jewellery

Turning 40 is a huge, humbling (and at times horrifying) milestone in any persons's life - man or women. One thing it does make you do is take a hard, cold look, physically at your face for tell-tale signs of ageing (and you do discover a few around the eyes or forehead you swear were not there the night before) and emotionally at your life's has been priorities so far and make a few minor adjustments.

Because if you are anything like me, you have been living trying to make the people around you happy. I decided on the day I turned forty (and that was six years back) that this decade was going to be about me - not my husband or children and the million little things I have been obliged to do to make their days run smoothly. I for once, will do what I can to make my life easier, and have time to do what I have always wanted to do, namely - learn, read, write and be more involved with design and things that interest and inspire me. I will have the time to visit my mum more frequently and spend time with her, I will make time for my friendships which may or may not tally with couple friendships I had been obliged to carry out as a sane, sociable married couple.

And how has  my 40s resolution impacted my family life, well, my kids seem to view me more as a person now than a mom who is always there to pick up their crap (so to speak, and when I do pick up their crap on the  occasional, they are actually grateful, some thing that never happened before!) and my husband has appreciated me being more happy and calmer (instead of tired and crappy from running around doing errands every day) - a good change all around, I must say. I only wish I had done this sooner, but I guess, you can only make these adjustments when your kids are a certain age ready to be pushed into being more independent and mine were certainly that age when I reached my fortieth.

On my fortieth, I also made a pact with myself to treat myself to a lovely piece of vintage jewelry for each passing birthday (another one of my passions that had been lying dormant for a long time). Now six years on, I am a proud collector of  some lovely vintage pieces of portrait/costume jewelry that gives me huge pleasure every time I wear them and have been complemented on many occasions by friends and strangers alike.

One jewelry designer that I have become a huge admirer of and actively look out for her for-sale pieces on the net (and they seem to be getting rarer and pricier with each passing year) is MIRIAM HASKELL - a name unknown to me before I started collecting. The more I know about her the more she fascinates me, not only because of her humble beginnings, startling success as a jewelry designer, and a tragic decline into obscurity and death, but also because her jewelry resonates with my ideas about design - that it should be unique (she never replicated any of her designed jewelry and each piece was handmade), should have finesse (the detailing on her jewelry is amazing), and should bring joy (her jewelry certainly does that, she took inspiration from all things around in nature). And to top it all her jewelry is not pretentious, you don't need to save it for special occasions, you can wear it with your jeans and look real classy or jazz up a plain evening dress and look real glamorous.

Miraim Haskell - a 1930s portrait

Miriam's story is compelling, she was born in Indiana in 1899 and moved to New York and opened a boutique shop in McAlpine Hotel in 1926 when costume jewelry was still fairly an unknown and new concept introduced by the wildly popular Coco Channel in Paris who had launched her vrais bijoux en toc or real fake jewellery in 1924. It can be said without the shadow of a doubt that Miriam was the one who introduced Americans to the joys of owning fine pieces of costume jewelry in the last century.

They say necessity fuels innovation and it was the years following the Great Depression in the 1930s that saw a boom in the popularity of costume jewelry in America - an alternative to real jewelry which women could indulge in without guilt and men could gift without digging deep into their  pockets. 

And Miriam was the only costume jeweler this side of the Atlantic that was making pieces at par in design, workmanship and artistic flavor with the ones across in the fashion capital Paris. Movie stars patronage in the 40s and 50s gave further boost to Miriam's sales and increased her popularity - these were the years when she designed some of her most iconic pieces. But like any true artist, she was eccentric by nature and given to bouts of depression which grew longer and worse as the years went by till she could no longer work by late 1950s. She died a lonely death in relative obscurity in 1981, aged 82.

Only recently and after nearly half a century, her jewelry has seen a revival like none another and her designed pieces are changing hands for higher and higher amounts and is becoming rarer and most sought after.

The first vintage jewelry piece I bought designed by Miriam Haskell was on my fortieth - a double strand of pearls with matching clips - they are faux pearls but so subtly luminous that they look and feel real and rich - very glamorous, very ritzy. Since then I have acquired a few more of her vintage pieces and am forever on the look out for more!

Here are some of her vintage jewelry for you to admire

LAYERS of PERSONALITY: In Rooms and People

Personality:the combination of characteristics or qualities that form an individuals distinctive character

I have been guilty of taking people at face value many a times, even through I know people are multi-faceted with layers of characteristics and traits that make up their personality- some of these traits of character, as revealed to me over time, are pleasantly surprising, others disappointing, occasionally I come across reprehensible or annoying traits or perhaps mundane and commonplace ones. But does that ever stop me from making a first impression and filing it neatly away in my memory - not really. I still hold on to that first impression long after I have known them, or until and unless they do something really drastic to change my opinion of them. 

Similarly rooms create strong first impressions as well, we get the vibe, or the feel of the room as soon as we enter through a door the very first time - and that first distinctive impression stays and lingers, even though like people rooms have many undercurrents and display characteristics that are only revealed on close encounters.

This is the one thing, and the most important thing that I keep in mind when designing my rooms-  the first impression. What impact do I want it to create on those seeing it for the first time, what kind of vibe do I want it to give out - cheerful and formal or sophisticated but informal? Loud and vibrant or subtle and calm?  Only once I get past that hurdle, that all important decision, do I focus on the details, the colours, the hues, the textures, the furniture and the placement of it.

But something also to bear in mind while designing a room is that on close perusals, rooms (again like people's personality traits) have many layers to their design, a blend of hues and moods and interchanging accents brought on by changing lights, changing seasons and changing accessories.

 Daylight accentuates certain characteristics while night lights highlights other. So even the littlest of details is not really little, if you think about it - every little characteristic of the room will have its moment of glory where it catches people's attention.  God is in the details, someone said,  and as I mentioned in one of my earlier posts, successful designers know the art of layering a room - giving it subtle layers of sometimes contrasting, sometimes complementing characteristics - just like personality traits- that build up their overall first impression to maximum impact. 

I am always astounded by how little changes can entirely change the feel of the room. Just moving the position of  a lamp, or even changing the wattage of bulb in a lamp can throw the entire room in a different light (excuse the pun!). Another very subtle change which completely lifts the room from being merely-homely to sophisticated-homely is introducing silver accents. A photo-frame here, a small tray there, even silver studs as edging on upholstered chairs, silver- jeweled tie-backs - and there! your room has a whole new cosmopolitan feel. Warmth is another vibe fairly easy to achieve without breaking the bank. A smart wool or fur throw, loose weave or tweed cushions, double layer curtains and your room will send a vibe so snug and warm your guest will never want to leave!

Subtle changes, but striking outcomes - something to bear in mind when we want to be brutally honest about our shortcomings and really want to change our not-so-proud-of-personality-traits to become a better, wholesome person! Change the little, and big changes will follow, I promise you!

Here are a few of my favourite rooms, for various reasons, but mostly because I like their first impressions.

Larger than Life

I have always wondered what it means to be larger than life itself.

Does it mean having a big, out-there personality and your actions and words make you so popular that people remember you when you are no more?  Or does it mean you live life with a careless abandon, paying no heed to the niggling worries and stresses of everyday existence, hoping from one (seemingly oblivious to reality) encounter to another, that makes you outrank and perhaps outsmart life? Or maybe it implies living for others, abandoning your personal cares and comforts to a higher, bigger purpose so in the process your existence becomes larger than life because your life is making so many other lives better?

We all live mostly for ourselves. It's our comfort and our cares foremost on our minds every week, every day. Ever sat in a coffee shop and eavesdropped on the conversation on the next table? Well I have been guilty of that, especially if out alone, and I am always slightly shocked by how self centred as a species we have become. People talk about all manner of things, but the main focus of all their conversations is self. Our triumphs, our sorrows - words of encouragement that elate us or words of criticism that deflate us, we can't seem to get out of thinking about us, all the time, 24/7.

And amongst the hundreds and thousands who are trapped in the self-bubble, lo and behold, you find someone, who has broken the barrier of self, like a Concorde breaking the sound barrier, and transcend themselves into a state of mind where self is, well not meaningless, but not the most important thing anymore.

They realise that, and I can't say it better than Rumi ....that it is their light that lights the world around them. So they become the light, the ladder and the lifeboat for others and in doing so realise an inner peace and tranquility that is elusive to all others tormented by self. Now in my mind and heart, I believe those are truly larger than life people, because their goodness lives on, their deeds send a ripple through the universe that resonates through time and space, long after they are no more.

So, being larger than life, does not necessarily need a loud, strong, extroverted personality. Even the quietest, meekest, tamest and non-descriptive person that we are likely to brush away without a thought if we were to ever encounter them, may be the ones larger than life.

And thinking about larger than life people reminds me of how in interior design one proportionately  larger than others piece of furniture or "statement piece" as it is so called always manages to elevate the ambience of the room to an entirely new level. The room becomes from ordinary to extraordinary - almost akin to the power of being larger than life!

Here are some statement pieces to enjoy and be inspired.

Defining Style and Who Has It

This is a tricky one.

They say beauty is in the eyes of the beholder - same goes for style - so style to me might be different from what you see and perceive as stylish. It's each one to his own when it comes to style. What I might call stylish, you may think (at best) non-descript or (at worst) hideous - there is no definitive criteria of "style" - each and everyone of us is right (in our own minds) about what we think as stylish - as bizarre as it may seem.

But where most people do go wrong is defining style as the current trends in fashion - what's "in" is stylish and what was last season is "out" and not in style. That to me is rather a shallow and (if I may say so) an uninformed way of thinking and talking about style.

In reality, style is timeless, transcends current fashion and is a way of living and thinking that is unique to each and everyone of us. It is an approach to design and fashion and our preference for certain designs over others.

 For example, my home is styled the way I want to live, which is serene, organised and focused more on the five than the fifteen - that is - I would rather get five things that I really, really want to complement my decor than fifteen random ones. Similarly the way I dress defines my personal style, which is harmonised and understated.

Most people instinctively have a style, whether they are aware of it or not, a list of design preferences that they gravitate towards  time and again without realising - reaching for the same or similar things in home decor and personal attire.

But what about current trends in design and fashion? Where do they fit in with style?

Undoubtedly most of us are influenced by current trends, but they donot become "style" unless adopted unequibaly by us. When design and fashion enters the domain of your personal space only then it becomes your style, on the shelf or in stores they are just designs waiting to be incorporated by people into their personal space - and like any and many of life journey's, your style evolves as you become older, more mature. I myself, over the years have experimented with design and fashion (sometimes with disastrous outcomes!) but as I have grown older I have become more confident in knowing and recognising my personal style and picking out what in the current trends would complement me and my personal spaces.

So the age old question, who has style and who hasn't? Well I leave that question  for you to ponder over. Is there a right or wrong - but more importantly, is there a right and wrong that you and I will agree on?

Because when it comes to style, it really is all about perceptions, my dear, like ninety-nine percent of life's encounters!