Lions and Jewels.

Originally I decided that for each necklace I made I would consciously note down all sources of inspiration, now when I made this piece I completed it first and then as a second thought, thought about what had inspired me. Lions prominently. Lions were one of the many inspirations for Coco Chanel as I wrote about here,
for me its the rich powerful connotations associated with lions, then that mixed with a the rocky, messy haired beautiful girl I envision wearing it with 'the white shirt and old jeans' the inclusion of gold and silver, jewelled and plain matt golden squares. It comes back to my thoughts on alot of things in terms of fashion in general I dont like too much of one thing there needs to be a balance both as a whole (jeans and  a jumper but with high shoes) and scaled down to a certain piece like this necklace with the mixture of comparisons I just mentioned.

Message In A Bottle.

My love for special little thoughtful things must definitely come from my mum. At home this morning she gave me a box which had a glass bottle inside with one scroll inside the bottle, she wasnt meant to give it to me it was meant for new years eve night and completed it will have three little messages from all of them my mum dad and brother. I dont think anything can beat thoughtful things with such little cost. Now a message in a bottle has years of history essentially a form of communication whereby a message is sealed in a container by any medium so long as it floats and remains waterproof and released into the sea, even that alone makes it a special thing, that the reader of the message is unknown and delivered by sheer fate from the vast ocean. The first messages were found so long ago, 310 BC by an ancient greek, now it might have reached unecessary detail now and becoming boring but I read on...Christopher Columbus sent one in a storm hoping it would reach the shore if he didnt make it, the English Navy used to send them with information about enemy positions, in 2005 eighty eight shipwrecked people were rescued after they had placed a SOS message in a bottle and the longest record for a floating message was 92 years 229 days at sea. OK I'm stopping.

My Christmas.

Happy Christmas to all of you! My house and my presents, and it was perfect!

The Result.

So following on from the post I wrote about my first source of inspiration for the first necklace I made after deciding to start my stall again, here is my interpretation of it all. Yes its big (well massive?) and yes you have to have a certain degree of confidence to wear this (if you liked it) and yes I don't think you could possibly fit one more thing on it (as my boyfriend confirmed.) To many people this just sounds unappealing, but when I'm making something I'm doing it purely from personal taste and with the vision of 'imagine it with a white shirt and old jeans' in my head. I appreciate, like with all things in fashion, it will not suit everyone's taste but at the same time that is what I like about each necklace/bracelet, the fact that you either love it or hate it and there's no way it could sit in a maybe box.

Caroline de Maigret.

I spotted Caroline de Maigret in amongst a tumblr page, not knowing who or what she was known for I had to do just a quick google search to find out what came up about this lady with the typical stand out understated french style. So Caroline began her modelling career in 1994 working with the likes of Mario Testino, Peter Lindbergh and Terry Richardson and considered a Chanel muse. From the fashion world to the music industry she launched a rock label called Bonus Tracks Records with her partner Yarol Poupaud and set up a publishing company called Yarock Editions where they produce soundtracks and music. And then I came across this interview with her, so if you wanted to know how she looks so effortlessly beautiful, here you go.

First Inspiration.

As I have decided to start creating my jewellery again I have decided that this time I will be adapting a more constructed strategy in terms of the design process, my first attempt consisted of simply breaking up all the jewellery I had and putting it back together into pieces that were completely derived from my imagination with no plan or inspiration or more honestly no order what so ever. This time I am starting from scratch and following the type of processes that I read about, gathering inspiration then using that and producing a piece that represents my adaptation of all the inspirational sources I have collected. Now this isn't a collection I'm producing its just simply having a sort of story behind each piece what has inspired each necklace or bracelet as opposed to me just going along and putting it together with no plan. So, for my first project I had a distinctive picture in my head and that was the girls on the Givenchy ready-to-wear 2008 catwalk and here was his inspiration behind this, the extensive collection of chains and crosses hanging against simple black. Now I would never want to do a copy cat impersonation instead it made me think more generally about religious inspiration in fashion, this lead me to this article,I dont really consider this to be a discreet inspiration when you think about it religious influences can be seen in many collections but as with any major sources of inspiration the interesting aspect is how each individual adapts this and how this appears in creations significantly enough that it makes it easy to identify where these ideas have been initiated. Photo inspiration... I will post an image of the final once completed.