Jewelry Making

I was surfing around on Style Bakery and came across some pretty cool and unusual jewelry pieces over at Bonbon Oiseau yesterday. Many of the more interesting pieces of jewelry are hair clips and adornments, but they also have more traditional necklaces and earrings as well. “They” is Brooklyn’s Deborah Stein an artist/designer who makes limited-edition and one of a kind pieces that are often based on narrative “themes” (for instance her Winter 2005 Collection is based on the influence of seasons on nature and the world around us).

I think the Bonbon Oiseau name means “Candy Bird” or “Good Bird”… but anyhow, to call them bonbons might be an apt term, because her work often reminds me of tiny little artistic jewelry treats that are put together with care for people to enjoy.

A quote from Deborah’s website about her jewelry design philosophy:

“Designing jewelry is a natural extension of what I do and what excites me in painting: experimenting with materials and color, evoking a mood or essence of one and the challenge of telling a personal story with an ending open to interpretation. With jewelry as a medium, there’s an incredible sense of spirit and intimacy connecting me with my client, the client and her piece, her and the world.”

Her work is very evocative, employing unusual materials such as feathers, flowers and silk in addition to more standard precious stones. They often seem to be like little miniature pieces of artwork themselves. Some of the more fabulous pieces she has are her hair adornments. Infused with a whimsical style but still very elegant, the centerpiece of many of these elaborate creations are actual bird feathers.

This one is called “Plume de Blanc e Pinkie” and is based around a vintage ostrich plume. It also contains a linen flower, silk, lace, silver thread, a MOP flower and various freshwater pearls. I like the mixing of natural elements with standard pearls for this piece, very cool. Other elements used in her pieces include delicate black feather plumes, vintage fowl feathers and even deep blue peacock feathers. The feathers also show up in some of her pins and corsages.

The Bonbon Oieseau website can be found at: www.bonbonoiseau.com/