What's New at Rickie Voges Designs: tourmaline

Sunday, July 22, 2012

Where Do You Find Inspiration?

Last spring my husband and I spent a month in La Quinta, near Palm Springs and I took advantage of all the beautiful window shopping available in the area. One of my favorite pieces of eye candy was a stunning bracelet in the design studio of Denise Roberge. Her workshop is on the premises of her showroon and as I understand it , she personally picks all the gemstone and all her designs are hand forged and cast in pure 22k gold. She's an incredible artist and her jewelry is a work of art. My mother has collected some of her work over the years and the pieces are timeless classics. The bracelet I fell in love with had three humongous barrel shaped tourmalines set in rich heavy yellow gold--a piece worthy of an Etruscan princess, with a price tag to match. I wish I had a picture of that gorgeous bracelet to share, so you could drool over it with me, but alas I don't. (at the bottom of the page I will post one of her stunning designs so you can see what I mean by stunning art)

I've thought about that piece ever since, so when I came across a strand of large carved flourite beads I knew I wanted to try them in a bracelet. These might be the prettiest colors of flourite beads I've ever seen--one is aquamarine, another a teal blue (almost the color of blue tourmaline) and the third bead is the same rich aquamarine color with amethyst color in one corner. I don't think I would have thought that size of bead was suitable for a bracelet without my 'inspiration piece'. Of course what I did has nothing in common with the original inspiration except perhaps that I used three large stones. I have to say thank you though for putting the seed of inspiration in my head and giving me the courage to plunge ahead with a new idea.

I combined the stones with hammered gold vermeil toggle clasp and a single hammered vermeil bead and linked them together with goldfilled chain. The bracelet is easy to wear and flexible and I really love the way it looks on the wrist. To give you an idea of the size of the stones--they weigh over 42 carats per gemstone, and each stone is almost an inch long, and the yummy colors, oh my! Now I'm off to try another idea--there's inspiration everywhere.