My AGTA Spectrum Award Entry 2016

I designed and made the ‘Desdemona’ earrings for the spring 2016 AGTA Spectrum Awards competition in March of 2016. 

Baroque South Sea Pearls, Sapphires in Platinum. 
Design ©Mimi Favre 2016

The American Gem Trade Association holds an annual competition to promote colored gemstones in fine jewelry. Every year a different panel of judges picks winners for the various categories.  I’ve written about some of my past entries on this blog, including my Tourmaline earrings that received a Platinum Honors Award in 2015. There was a subsequent competition this past July which will be the new annual date going forward. No, I did not win this year, but I really love how they turned out.

I acquired two beautiful natural colored silver baroque south sea pearls several years ago. I knew that I wanted to design a pair of earrings with sapphires. The Spectrum competition is always good motivation to create a new piece. 

Design ©Mimi Favre 2016

 A quick pencil sketch was all I needed to get started. Constructing the models in silver: The earrings consist of a top shield shape with four single cut diamonds. Three graduated sections are attached with pins to allow movement. Flipped to make a right and left earring, I added platinum bezels for the sapphires. 

Design ©Mimi Favre 2016

The organic shape of the pearls inspired a soft look. I felt that platinum would enhance the sapphires and the silvery blue color of the pearls and that the earrings needed to be long with subtle movement. To me, the earrings reference the long curvy silhouette of Art Nouveau.

Design ©Mimi Favre 2016

Hard work and a little luck.

AGTA Spectrum 2015- Platinum Honors.© Mimi Favre

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I have won an award! Having entered the AGTA Spectrum Award Competition seven times, my entry for 2015 was awarded Platinum Honors in the Classical category, a distinction from the Platinum Guild of America. I admit…. it feels good! 

The AGTA Spectrum Awards competition was created to promote colored gemstones in fine jewelry. Designers and manufacturers of all levels enter. Many have more resources including access to the newest technology like laser welding and CAD or amazing (expensive) gemstones. It's not hard to feel a bit defeated before starting. Last year I skipped this competition, and I nearly talked myself out of it this time, too. And, like any competition, the process of choosing winners is by nature subjective. 

Nonetheless, I enter for several reasons. Obviously, winners do garner publicity, and recognition is always welcome, but competitions have parameters and deadlines that create a framework, and freedom for the artist to create something of their choice, without the constraints that usually exist when the piece must meet the needs of a customer. So, for me, it’s about the spirit of competition and the personal fulfillment of completing a challenge.

Like many artists, I work alone. I design and make the prototypes in my jewelry. Aside from using some skilled services such as casting, I also do all of the construction and finishing on my work. I bought this group of tourmaline one year ago. I am drawn to green stones and especially the shades found in tourmaline that are found in many colors. I thought the green would show best against white metal. Platinum is the whitest of precious metals and great to work in.

Once I had settled on a long dangle with the two thin marquis stones, I re-arranged the stones over and over.  

 

©Mimi Favre

©Mimi Favre

©Mimi Favre

©Mimi Favre

The olive green stones are pretty, but I decided not to use them. The faceted prasolite did not belong.

Next I fabricated silver setting prototypes. 10mm, 9mm, 8mm  and a marquis setting. These were cast in platinum.

M. Favre

AGTA Spectrum 2015- Platinum Honors. ©Mimi Favre

 

South Sea Pearl & Sapphire Platinum Earrings

Recently, I completed a pair of sapphire and South Sea pearl earrings. What began as 'show and tell' of recent additions to my inventory became a new jewelry project for my friend!

14mm x 16mm baroque South Sea Pearls.

I met this client over a decade ago in a botanical painting class. Our friendship began when we discovered that we had gone to the same art school (different years) and that we had both had a wonderful design teacher there whom we had learned a lot from even though she was a stickler for detail and a tough grader. She had taught both of us design and color theory.

Usually I paint the design when I make a custom piece but in this case my artistic friend knew exactly what she wanted. I had shown the pearls to her after a Tucson buying trip and a few months later she showed me a design with blue stones and yellow gold. She likes dangle earrings and wanted to use sapphires. We met once more after I had procured the sapphires to go over the fine points of the design. It was decided that all white metal, in this case platinum, would compliment the silvery white baroque pearls and cornflower blue sapphires.

For this pair of earrings I made setting models with six prongs to be cast in platinum. The center wire is round platinum stock that I drilled at each end. The earring is flexible  in two places to allow swinging movement . The pearls move side to side.

Mimi Favre Studio

South Sea pearls and sapphires- Platinum. ©Mimi Favre 2011

South Sea pearls and sapphires- Platinum. ©Mimi Favre 2011

Waiting for Irene

A few hundred miles away, Hurricane Irene is churning up the Atlantic heading towards us in southeastern Pennsylvania. The local news is reporting that we will have a tropical storm with 5-10 inches of rain later tonight. All we can do now is wait.

It is eerily quiet outside.  There is not one bird in sight or to be heard. The sky is beginning to get overcast and it is raining lightly but the light is still bright enough to take photos. It has been a warm and sunny summer and although there are still a few tomatoes in the garden, and everything is still green, there are subtle signs of fall. This is one of those moments when a natural event intervenes in our busy lives and allows us to pause and just absorb everything the moment has to offer.  I decided to take a walk in the rain around my garden and the yard beyond. 

 anemone. Great fall blooming plant. 

Nasturtiam in the vegetable garden border. 

Moonflowers. Beautiful fragrant flowers bloom at night.

Sunflowers are 7 ft.

Beautiful feathery foliage of amsonia hubrectii.

Sycamore bark.

Huge white fungus.

Small fungus in wood chip mulch.

This is a native grass that we have naturalized in a small field.

The Art of Custom Jewelry

One of the great pleasures I derive from being a jeweler is the occasional new design project that involves an old piece of jewelry. In this case, grandmother’s ring is being dismantled and the diamonds are to be used for a new set of wedding rings.

 I recently met with a young couple that needed wedding bands for their August wedding. The groom to be had already given his fiancée a solitaire diamond engagemant ring. The bride to be had been given her grandmother's diamond wedding ring to be used for a new wedding band. The design challenge for me was to create a new band and to use most or all of the diamonds.  Also, I would be providing a wedding band for the groom.

The engagement ring is a somewhat modern style of heavy round wire that wraps the finger, twists a bit and holds the diamond with two wide bezels. A standard flat band would not lie against the side evenly. I ruled out this option because over time the wear on the rings would be very uneven. Since wedding rings are worn together continuously for years, it is important when designing them to pay close attention to where the metal touches and how they nest together.

My sketch. 

The solution was to make two diamond bands to be worn with the solitaire. There were enough stones to create a great look. And, it was decided that two small stones could be used in the groom’s band too.  I made two rings in wax then photgographed them with her ring.

Center engagement ring.
Two carved wax rings with diamonds positioned in place.

Side view.

Two cast 14k white gold rings, semi polished and ready for settting. Old ring mounting.

Another design consideration was to set the diamonds flush, burnished rather than pave with bright cut and beads.  This style of setting compliments the existing solitaire which has a clean modern style.

Finished rings. Shows where engagement ring will fit.

Trio of rings. Design by Mimi Favre 2011.

The groom opted for traditonal pave for his band. Just like the original sketch, two stones have been set in the grooms wedding band on the diagonal with a slight arc in the bright cut.

Grooms wedding ring with two small diamonds.

Steeplechase

A week of rainy weather gave way to a picture perfect day. The Steeplechase event now in it's eighty first year in this lovely corner of Chester County, PA, has more recently become a fundraiser to benefit The Brandywine Conservancy. There are several horse races during the day over a hilly open course of mowed fields and jumps. 

Jockeys form a line just before the starter signals the start of the race.

Race has started. 

The race is on.

To hear the rumble of galloping horses approach then see a flash of color as the jockeys ride by wearing the color of the stables they ride for is like being in a Degas painting- a spectacle that has not changed in a hundred years.

This could be a painting by Edgar Degas.

The race course lined with picnic tents.

Enjoying the race at The Bellevue Tent. 

Cheese and fruit table.

The Bellevue served a Moroccan dinner to their guests. Flower arrangements by Beautiful Blooms were incredible.