I am delighted to have been chosen this year for Brown Thomas CREATE 2023. CREATE is an annual fashion pop-up held in Brown Thomas's flagship store on Dublin's Grafton Street, showcasing the best of emerging Irish Designers.
Now in it's 13th year, Create continues to celebrate the best of Irish design and craft with 28 designers across jewellery, millinery, fashion, shoes, accessories, and homewares.
The event was launched on July 6th and runs to the 21st of August. Designers will be in store to meet and greet customers. I will be in store from 12pm to 4pm on Saturday, 12 August, demonstrating how I how I work with wax to create my beautiful works of wearable art.
]]>If this your first holiday season with the love of your life...or perhaps the second (except you feel nervous after last year nearly left you single – again), do not be afraid. Read on and let Tracy and Ivana guide you through the pine needle and (angrily) broken glass ornament filled obstacle course of gift-giving this season.
“I LOVE YOU SO MUCH...I’M HIDING IN YOUR BUSHES”
For those of you in a budding relationship and ready to impress, we shall share the story of Steve to illustrate how it is possible to go from memorable to creepy fast.
Steve fancied Tracy. For months he found reasons to ‘bump into her’, in order to learn more about her. Amongst other things, he discovered that she had a great smile, loved to laugh and that Steve’s father was Tracy’s dentist. Once Steve had gathered what he felt was enough ‘intel’ on the object of his desire, he drummed up all his courage at the water cooler and casually said, “I have something for you” and with that, he handed her a copy of her dental X-rays.
Steve learned a lot that day. Firstly, when someone says, “You shouldn’t have”, they may actually mean it. Secondly, he observed in Tracy a facial expression that he had never seen before or ever wanted to see again. Most importantly, he learned that gifting in a new relationship should be undertaken with extreme caution and be more “Romeo” and less “Hannibal”.
Lesson: Don’t be Steve, avoid deeply intimate or medical gifts at the beginning of any relationship.
WHEN A NEW IRON JUST WON’T DO
Complacency in an established relationship has been the undoing of many happy holidays. You know the age old story: wife says, “we need a new iron”. Husband takes this as a hint and buys one forgetting that she also had nonchalantly left a jewelry brochure next to the TV remote control. Husband excitedly presents his wife with the iron that he wrapped himself; wife cries.
So before eagerly splurging on that fancy steam mop your partner mentioned, ask yourself: is it for your partner or the house? If you realise that it is for the house, you are making progress. Well done!
Your next step is to do your due diligence. To spare your partner’s feelings and to ensure you do not spend the rest of the holiday alone, here are some tips on ‘getting it right’:
HAS ANY OF THIS SUNK IN?
So now that we have given you the basics to help you WOW your partner this festive season, it is time to put your new found knowledge to the test.
Your partner is partial to contemporary jewelry and loves a statement piece. Do you:
Your partner loves nothing more than driving in a vintage convertible with the top down. Do you:
Your partner loves cooking. Do you:
Your partner loves perfume. Do you:
BONUS IDEAS (BECAUSE EVERYTHING WE DO IS EXTRA)
OUR GIFT TO YOU - A USEFUL BAROMETER FOR ALL GIFT GIVING OCCASIONS (KEEP HANDY)
This article was a collaboration between me and my friend, Ivana Nohel. Ivana is a Creative Director, illustrator, and product designer from London. Ivana is famous for her hand illustrated silk scarves, which are a favourite of the Queen’s. Her collection of luxury scarves and accessories can be found at www.castanohel.com where she and her business partner and stylist, Annie Castano, will happily guide you through your journey of finding the perfect accessory.
The past two months have been an interesting and exciting time for me as I join Angela Quaintrell and her family of talented designers at AQ Market.
With over 30 years experience in high fashion and luxury retail, Angela is an extraordinary advocate of emerging designers whom she has brought together in AQ Market. Angela understands fashion and is always looking for fresh and exciting talent who have an attention to detail and quality.
Though plans for London Fashion Week and Paris Fashion Week were put on hold because of the pandemic, we have all been working hard behind the scenes. I'm delighted with my lookbook, which marries beautiful images, quotes, and poetry to illustrate the inspiration behind my collections. And, I am coordinating my first photoshoot with the most amazing model and photographer. I'd love to share more details, but think it's best if you watch this space.
So despite the slow start to 2021, a lot of exciting things are happening behind the scenes. I can't wait to see what the future brings!
]]>From a metalsmith's point of view, getting a Makers Mark is a very special thing. It's not something that can be bought from a shop or Amazon. It is assigned to the maker by an Assay Office in the maker's country of origin. The mark is comprised of the maker's initials, which sit inside a shape and is completely unique to the maker. It is a signature of sorts, which identifies that a design - be it a piece of fine jewellery or a piece of silverware - was imagined and crafted by a particular person.
For a jewellery enthusiast, the Makers Mark is neat way of identifying who made their piece. But, the hallmark is what is really important, because it guarantees that the piece that is sold as a precious metal is genuine Sterling Silver, Gold, or Platinum.
You would be surprised how much jewellery is sold as precious metal, but in reality is not. For instance, a cheap piece of silver jewellery that is presented as sterling silver could actually be an alloy comprised of copper, cadmium, zinc, and nickel. Whilst copper and zinc aren't harmful, nickle is a known allergen and cadmium is carcinogenic - which is why it is a controlled substance.
In order for a piece to be hallmarked, the maker has to send it to the Assay Office where a sample of the metal is extracted from the design before being put through either chemical analysis or non-destructive X-ray fluorescence analysis. (That's a mouthful, isn't it?) Every metal component of the piece, including the solder, must be of assay quality. Only when the sample has passed the assay test can it be hallmarked. Ireland is one of only a few countries that has compulsory statutory hallmarking. It is an expensive process that makers have to undertake in order to legally present and sell a piece as being made of precious metal. You might ask, "what happens if a piece of jewellery doesn't pass the test?" Simply put: the Assay Office keeps it and destroys it so that it cannot be sold.
So, I suppose the lesson to be learned here is that if you are looking at a piece of gold or silver jewellery and the price is too good to be true, there is a reason for it. Without a hallmark, it is "Buyer Beware."
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