I am a big fan of surprises. As someone that is pretty organized and likes things her way, I love when things happen outside my "control". So naturally when someone reaches out for a surprise gift, I am usually just as excited as they are. 

Bill emailed me that he wanted to surprise Antoinette with a gift for their 25th anniversary. Antoinette and I connected last year. She's had a very special necklace of mine for a couple of years and just recently added a few new pieces into her collection. Bill gave me free reign, but what surprised me the most is how well versed he was in materials, techniques and diamonds. 

I was travelling at the time and we had a pretty tight deadline, and not being close to my studio I resorted to paper and scissors to play with some ideas. 

He saw one of my pieces from the I Do collection and thought this was a nice starting point. I wanted to move ideas further and also riff on some of the pieces Antoinette has in her arsenal, so I proposed three ideas and he selected my favorite! The three diamonds in the design represent their sons. 

This turned out to be a nice technical challenge, which I always welcome. I move and sculpt metal. This piece can be cast but it would be really hard to clean, same thing if you were to CAD it and cast it, so fabricating it is the only way. This meant I tested about 6 pieces before I moved into a strip of 14k gold. Usually, using 18k or 22k would make this a bit easier, but we worked with 14k that would match up with the color of the collections Antoinette already has.

What a fun and crazy challenge!

What this means is that once I take that strip of precious gold, if I bend it wrong then I would have to scrap it and buy a new piece. This of course was not an option. After these tries, once I felt the flow I took hands and pliers and voila. 

I love how it turned out! 

What I most appreciate is connecting with people and hearing their stories. When Bill spoke about Antoinette, he called her "his bride" and when we discussed meeting up in NYC one day he said that she's the cool and interesting one in their duo. Getting a sense of their dynamic and intimacy is my biggest gift.  Thanks Bill!

Please contact me to start on your special project ---> info@oblik-atelier.com