During my years of learning French at the Alliance Française de Bangalore, I had the good fortune of having many wonderful teachers, all with their own style of making the language beautiful for us. The one person who was MOST inspirational, with her passion for French and for teaching, was Mrs. Vidya Suresh. She is one of those teachers who you look at and think, "that's who I want to be when I grow up!" :)
During her course, she introduced us to a story close to her heart, Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince) by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and read us a beautiful quote from it.
"On ne voit bien qu'avec le coeur. L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux."
This means, "One cannot see well but with the heart. The essential is invisible to the eyes".
Such a simple expression pregnant with meaning!
When I decided to start creating jewelry with quotes on it, this was the very first quote that came to mind and I made the necklace immediately.
I created the pendant with two heart shaped, thick (18 gauge) copper bases. I hand stamped the words "ON NE VOIT BIEN QU' AVEC LE COEUR" and hammered and textured them. Then I attached the small heart to the large one with fine copper wire, accented by a few copper rounds beads and a delicate handmade polymer clay rose in a deep red (burgundy) color.
Then I attached the pendant to a solid copper cable chain with a handmade copper clasp.
I put the necklace through an antiquing rainbow patina process to add depth to the designs and hand polished it to bring out the details and give it an old world charm.
A whimsical and rustic hand stamped copper pendant with the words CUTIE PIE on the large disc and a cute little heart on the tiny disc. After stamping the pendant, I hammered and textured it, put it through an antiquing process and hand polished it to bring out the details in the design.
A gorgeous, earthy necklace featuring a highly detailed Turtle charm, a 15mm Azurite-Chryscolla bead in a fabulous aqua color (with flashes of black) and matching blue-green Swarovski crystals all wrapped in solid copper wire and hung on a fabulous solid copper rollo chain. The necklace is finished with a beautiful solid copper toggle clasp. I placed the toggle clasp so it locks in front, right above the pendant.
Length of chain (including clasp): 16 3/4 inches (42 centimeters)
It started with a piece of copper wire which was hammered flat into this earthy, organic shaped pendant. Then the words I AM BLISSFUL were stamped onto it. The copper was then textured and put through a patina process to give it an antique finish. Finally it was hand polished to bring out the details.
I recently visited this wonderful restaurant called Café Gratitude and was completely taken by the the people, the food and overall the energy of the place. I have written more about it (with lots of photos) on my blog if you're interested: http://cutelittlepackage.blogspot.com/2009/08/cafe-gratitude-san-francisco.html
Wear this pendant as a constant reminder to yourself and others around you that gratitude is a beautiful state of mind to be in at all times.
The focal piece of this rustic pendant is a copper ring which was hand stamped with the word 'SMILE' then textured, hammered, oxidized to a rich patina and hand polished to bring out the details. It was then attached to a beautiful, handmade round polymer clay bead in earthy colors which compliment the antiqued copper. The spiral wave dangles at the end of the pendant were hand shaped and hammered out of copper wire and then antiqued and hand polished.
Length: approximately 4 1/2 inches (11.3 centimeters)
Rich antiqued copper combined with fabulous handmade polymer clay roses in a delicious burgundy color form these gorgeous earrings.
Rustic earrings handmade by me with love and care.
