A house is not a home...

...until the first issue of Vogue Paris arrives in the mail.

The mars issue arrived in Savannah...I was so excited when I saw this sticking out of my mailbox yesterday! Plus, it is addressed to Mlle. Courtney...how chic is that!?

I have been addicted to this magazine since high school. It gave me the desire to want to study fashion design (which turned in to a desire to design jewelry) and it is still one of the biggest sources of inspiration for my collections to this day.

In The Studio...

Sadly, most of my studio "stuff" (equipment, tools, etc.) is still packaged and being stored until I find the perfect studio space...but the one piece I couldn't bear to pack away was my big work bench...an antique mahogany library table (the photo here is of the carved detail on its curved legs)...so now it sits in my bedroom, serving as combination mini-jewelry-studio, computer desk and vanity until the rest of my furniture arrives and it moves to its new home in my Savannah studio.



Over the years I have always welcomed customers in to my studio so they could see where I work, look at all the beautiful gems *before* they are made into jewelry, and sometimes just to have a glass of wine and enjoy my mini-library of jewelry design & gemstone books. I have also had many requests from out-of-town customers to view my studio online...and once my new studio space is set up I plan to do just that! Starting in April I am introducing an "In the studio" series of posts on my blog...stay tuned for details

Apatite...

Apatite used to be one of my favorite stones to work with, especially in the beautiful Caribbean blue-green shade seen here...but it is brittle, prone to breaking making it difficult to work with, and often filled with cracks & inclusions. Recently, my love for apatite was renewed when I came across a few strands of the finest apatite briolettes I had ever seen (shown below in the Cote d’Azur Earrings).



This apatite is AMAZING!

Nearly every gem on the strand is eye clean with beautiful even color...and because this apatite has virtually no cracks or inclusions, so far there has been no breakage! I acquired every strand I could find of this stunning stone, and I have a feeling its not going to last very long...this apatite will make an appearance in many, many of my pieces this spring & summer.