As I wrote here earlier, we were approached by the museum with the request to design some pieces of jewelry inspired by their logo.

Logo of Museum de Buitenplaats.

This is what we have made so far; a ring …

… and a brooch.

The picture frame is made of silver, a portion of which is inlaid with ebony. Cuff links and a pendant are in the works …

Museum De Buitenplaats

As a starting point we take the logo of the Museum. The logo is a picture frame in a funny perspective. The frame consists of 2 parts; a traditional and a modern part.

Here is the frame sitting in our studio.

However, we currently have a couple of nice orders including  a request of a client to look for  a nice strand of Lapis Lazuli, the semi precious gemstone with the beautiful sky blue color.

It had to be absolutely the best quality Lapis, it needed to have a natural look, so not the shiny polished kind and certainly not the painted kind. Because believe it or not, ​​since the 13th century BC imitations are made of Lapis Lazuli.

We found 3 great strands so the customer has a choice from 3 different sizes and I think we keep a strand to ourselves to make a beautiful necklace …

Another order was for a pair of wedding rings, who for a nice change are not made ​​of gold but of titanium.

The titanium has a beautiful gray color and blends very nice with the inlaid cherry wood. More information about these rings can be found here.

We also made a new brooch inspired by our visit to a fashion show and we are working to design a pendant around a blue – green opal. Will be continued

Although not all of Alaïa clothing appeals to me, this exhibition is absolutely beautiful!

The detail in some of the clothing is just amazing!

I have no idea If we ever going to use it, but recently we happened to play around with this …

Because I forgot to take my camera, the photos above were taken by Joop Kok,
a friend of mine …

The exhibition Azzedine Alaïa in the 21st century in the Groninger Museum in Groningen, The Netherlands, is still going on up to May 6, 2012.

The order came from a lady whose daughter became 50.
We know the client very well but we had never seen her daughter, Jessica, because she lives in Sweden.

We asked the client to tell us all about her daughter. A few key words were: gold, black hair, long or short, a love of and an education in paper and textile art, wearable every day, daughter has a representative profession.

Eventually we made these earrings.

They are inspired by a mixed paper and textile collage Jessica made.
The abstract shapes in the earrings are the same as in the collage.

The purple titanium wires that are wound around the upper part of the earrings, are the textile threads Jessica used in her artwork.

Today an update from our Atelier …

Our next commission is for such a silver Christening spoon.

Mr. X from Wijnjewoude would like to have a Christening Spoon for his nephew, inspired by a drawing of Cornelis Jetses. Our client is a great collector of Cornelis Jetses a well known Dutch illustrator from the fifties who is best known for his detailed illustrations in school textbooks, and historical prints.

When Mr. X comes to our Atelier he brings various drawings and together we make a choice. This is the 4e Christening Spoon we are going to make for Mr. X  and this time it’s going to be a spoon with the image of a hare.

A large silver spoon is hard to photograph so I have no really good pictures of all Christening Spoons. To still get an idea … click here.

His wishes … “I really like the wood & metal combinations … because of how much my wife loves plants and flowers I had an idea of a pendent / pin that possible had some fern like parts …”

So last week the two of us worked on this commission and had fun experimenting with real fern leaves. Just in time because by now the ferns in our garden are getting brownish and are almost gone….

Anyway here is our harvest … 3 brooches came of it!

Mary Frances Fern Brooch, sterling silver and cherry wood, design by Atelier The Jewelry Story

Mary Frances Fern Brooch, silver and cherrywood

Mary Frances Fern Brooch and pendant, silver and rose wood

Which one shall it be?

Mr. X wrote me to say he loved all 3 of them and can’t make up his mind, so he decided to led his wife in on the secret and show her the brooches so she can make her own choice. I told them to take their time …

Now that everything is in the open I can reveal to all of you who thought all the time this was the infamous Mr.X … The X was standing for Dan Rodriguez a very sympathetic gentleman from Odessa Florida.

Dan is a very skilled woodworker. Together with his wife Mary Frances they make beautiful furniture, custom made kitchens and they even provide interiors for yachts and boats. Please have a look at their website for their extensive portfolio and great images.

His wishes … “I really like the wood & metal combinations … because of how much my wife loves plants and flowers I had an idea of a pendent / pin that possible had some fern like parts …”

until I return from walking the dogs under typical Dutch skies …