Fabergé Friday

Last week I showed you one of Fabergé's flower creations, so today I thought we'd continue with some berries. Raspberries to be exact! This one was created around the year 1900!

You could almost believe this was a real twig, just cut from a bush and placed in a glass of water. But no. The ripening raspberries are made of rhodonite, surrounded by nephrite leaves attached to a gold stem. The "water filled" glass is cut from a piece of rock crystal. The dimensions of the creation is 6.3'' x 3.1'' x 2.6'' (15.9 x 7.8 x 6.7 cm). Since 1953 it can be found in the Royal Collection. 

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Hubert Duprat and Caddisfly Larvae

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This is a caddisfly...

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...and this is a caddisfly larvae! These little larvae are aquatic, and so live in ponds, lakes, streams, lakes and ponds etc. Here they build protective cases around themselves, made of silk decorated with whatever they find lying around, like gravel, sand, twigs, shells, and other debris. Here are two examples:

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Now you might wonder what happened here. Did that flu Miss Meadows just went through do something to her brain, that made her forget all about fashion, art and sparkly things, and turned her interest towards little bugs instead? But no, that is not the case! Don't worry, here come the pretty stuff!

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French artist Hubert Duprat have been collaborating with these little larvae since the beginning of the 1980s. He collects them from their natural habitats, and takes them to his studio. After removing their protective tubes, he then puts them in tanks filled with his own materials, so they can start building their tubes again. These materials just happens to be gold flakes, and both precious and semi-precious stones, including turquoise, lapis lazuli, coral, sapphires, pearls, rubies and diamonds. The result of that looks like this:

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Quite amazing, isn't it?

Lydia Courteille

On 231, Rue Saint Honoré lies a little boutique that sells magic jewelry. So if you want to cast a spell on someone, this is where you should go!...Or at least I think these sparkling works of wonder holds magical powers. They look like they should...

The creator behind the jewelry I'm talking about is Lydia Courteille, and her creations belongs to another world. A world of fairies, pirates, dreams, and mythological beasts. I wish I could go to a party dressed in nothing but her creations...

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Colibri earrings, orange Mexican opals, orange sapphires, green garnet, blackened gold. From the Gardens of Xochimilco Collection.

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Spider ring, orange Mexican opal, black diamonds, orange sapphires, green garnets, blackened gold. From the Gardens of Xochimilco Collection.

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Tree-men, from the Homage to Surrealism Collection.

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Spider pin, from the Homage to Surrealism Collection.

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Bat ring, black diamonds, drouzy agate, rubies and blackened gold. From the Black Mass in Paris Collection.

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Bat earrings, black diamonds, drouzy agate, rubies and blackened gold. From the Black Mass in Paris Collection.

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Tiara depicting Paris, dark gold, black diamonds and sapphires. From the Cabinet of Curiosities Collection.

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Opal flower ring, oval cabochon opal, carved flowers of moonstone, diamonds, green tsavorite garnets and white gold. From the My Secret Garden Collection.

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Bracelet, from the Amazonia Collection.

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Earrings, white gold, diamonds and opals, from the My Secret Garden Collection.

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Ring, white gold, ruthenium, diamonds, baroque pearl. 

To see all the beautiful pieces in the collections, pleas visit Lydia Corteille's web site!

Fabergé Friday

It's a sad day...We have reached the last Fabergé egg! And not much is known about this one either. It was made some time before 1896, and it resembles one of the two eggs I wrote about last Friday very much!

This egg is covered in white, translucent enamel over a guilloché ground. The decorations in four-colored gold, diamonds and rubies is a copy from last week's egg. 

What differs though, is the design of the top crown and that this egg stands on a square base, while the other one stands on a circular one.

Even the surprise is the same, but has a slightly different look - a basket of white enameled flowers, with ruby centers and green enamel leaves. This egg now belongs in a private collection, somewhere in the world...

So. The last egg has been shown. What will happen now? Is this the end of Fabergé Friday? Will we ever be able to eat eggs without thinking of Miss Meadows again? Will we all start rumbling around in our attics, looking for the few missing Fabergé Eggs? So many questions. So few answers....Tune in next Friday to see what happens...

Fabergé Friday

We have now reached Imperial Easter Egg number forty-nine: the "Mosaic Egg", from 1914!

This egg is made of several yellow gold belts, that hold together a platinum network partially pavé-set with diamonds, sapphires, rubies, emeralds, topaz quartz and green garnets to resemble petit point tapestry work, partially completed. 

Where no gems are set you can actually look straight through the egg. The decoration also include rows of half-pearls within lines of opaque white enamel, diamonds, and a moonstone set at the top, under which can be seen the Tsarina's gold initials - in Russian characters - inlaid in an opaque, pale pink plaque serving as a foil.

The surprise - held in place inside the egg with two gold clips - is a miniature frame holding the profiles of the five Imperial children, painted in camaieu brun on an opalescent pink enamel ground on one side...

...and the names of the children, a basket of flowers and the year "1914" in enamel on the other side. The frame itself is made of pearls and green enamel husks, with an Imperial crown set with rose-cut diamonds on top. The oval base and white enamel vase-shaped pedestal is decorated with diamonds, emeralds and two suspended pearls. 

The "Mosaic Egg" is part of the Royal Collection of Queen Elizabeth.

Colette Steckel

Except for my Fabergé Friday posts, there have been too little sparkling stuff on this blog lately. Time to change that! The jewelry designer I'll show you today is a woman named Colette Steckel. For the past fifteen years she has been designing and creating her own jewelry, and today she is one of Mexico's most renowned jewelry designers. Her inspiration comes from Mexican pre-Hispanic images and culture, as well as from her studies of French art and graphic design. She works with gold of different colors and both precious and semiprecious stones, and says she wants to enhance the natural light of a stone and expose multiple natural hues that have rarely been brought to light before. On her website you find several different collections, and here are my favorite pics from each of them!

Atame

Triangulo, 18 karat black gold, 1.60 ct white diamonds.

Frida, 18 karat black gold, 3.80 ct black diamonds, Tahitian pearls.

Elle, 18 karat black gold, 1.90 ct champagne diamonds.

Azusar

Maximiliano, 18 karat black gold, 0.90 ct white diamonds, Tahitian black pearl.

Excalibur (bracelet), 18 karat black gold, 0.80 ct white diamonds, Tahitian black pearl.

Black Camelot, 18 karat black gold, 0.65 ct white diamonds, 1.50 ct black diamonds.

Bestioles

Lady Emilia, 18 karat white gold, 0.48 ct white diamonds, labadorites.

Wasp, 18 karat black gold, 0.35 ct white diamonds, 2.16 brown, champagne, orange and yellow diamonds.

Circo

Gotta, 18 karat yellow gold, 0.20 ct white diamonds, aquamarines, citrines, peridots and pink quartz.

Circo Earrings, 18 karat yellow gold, 0.08 ct white diamonds, green amethysts, apetites and peridots.

Black Circo, 18 karat black gold, moonstones, SSPB.

Confeti

Malvavisco (ring), 18 karat yellow gold, 0.26 ct amethyst.

Malvavisco (ring), 18 karat yellow gold, pink tourmaline.

Agar, 18 karat yellow gold, 0.14 ct white diamonds, fire opals, moss tourmalines.

Eden

Evita, 18 karat black gold, 1.5 ct pink sapphires. 

Feuille

Saint Germain due (bracelet), 18 karat black and white gold, 1.00 ct whit diamonds, 1.07 ct black diamonds.

Galaxia

Quilla, 18 karat black gold, 0.40 ct white diamonds, 3.00 ct black diamonds.

La cage aux reves, 18 karat black gold, 3.59 ct white diamonds, moonstone, Tahitian black pearls.

Cosmique, 18 karat yellow gold, 1.38 ct white diamonds, blue topaz.

Black Rock, 18 karat white gold, 0.40 ct white diamonds, 2.00 ct black diamond. Seriously need this one!!!

Hydra, 18 karat black gold, 0.75 ct white diamonds, moonstones.

Cepheus, 18 karat black gold, 0.75 ct white diamonds, emeralds.

Leo, 18 karat black gold, 1.55 ct white diamonds. You know I love the moon, and my astrological sign is Leo! Who should these earrings belong to? I mean...Seriously?!!!

Pixis (earrings), 18 karat black gold, 2.95 ct white diamonds, ruby.

Draco, 18 karats black gold, 2.00 ct white diamonds, moonstones.

Jardin

Danvou (bracelet), 18 karat yellow gold, 0.72 ct white diamonds, moonstones.

Le Secret (ring), 18 karat white gold, 0.48 ct white diamonds, blue sapphires.

Les Fleurs

Constance (bracelet), 18 karat white gold, 2.40 ct white diamonds, moonstones.

Daphne (necklace), 18 karat white gold, 2.50 ct white diamonds, moonstones.

Mar

Dominica (ring), 18 karat yellow gold, rose quartz.