Our collections are often inspired by Monica's travels and discoveries. One of our most interesting and unique jewelry collections - The Ceramic Collection - came about after a visit to a flea market in Paris. The Ceramic Collection includes lockets, animal charms, and chain link bracelets. Here, Monica describes the story behind the collection...
While walking the Paris antique markets, I found this dealer in a tiny stall. It was filled with the most amazing white pottery. I came to learn it was pottery originating in France from the deco era called Les Craquelés - loosely translated it means “crackled pottery”. They were mostly white in color, sometimes black. All the figures and animals were graceful and elegant. I was already an avid collector of white pottery, but this was a style that I had never really seen much of before. I couldn’t get it out of my head. I kept thinking: How could I translate this into our jewelry?
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Eventually, we were able to bring ceramic into our designs with this pottery as my inspiration. We treated the ceramic as an equal to the gold, and mixed the two to create one beautiful piece of jewelry, from oval ceramic lockets, to gold and ceramic chain link bracelets - all done in both black and white.
The final pieces have a feeling of pure Deco. The collection really represents a fusion of 21st century material with the inspiration of that 20th century art Deco movement. I still dream of Les Craquelés pottery, especially when I’m wearing one of my Ceramic styles, which all feel like true statement pieces. The below white fish sculpture was my inspiration for our fish pendants. French deco pottery is so elegant and chic. I love anything Deco; it truly inspires me. I love that this fish pendant has so much meaning, and I feel empowered wearing it. It means “perseverance”. Fish swim forward, so no looking back – just keep looking ahead!
Shop our Ceramic Collection now.
*The images featured are from a beautiful book called Les Craquelés Art Deco, which is a wonderful resource for anyone interested in this type of pottery.