I have often been asked about the source of my inspiration while creating my Meerglanz Jewels. To be honest, it is always a mixture of autobiographical aspects, external inputs, mainly by coincidence and my personal taste of mix- and matching all components.
Let me describe the process by the example of my Super Mom & Super Dad earrings.
When my daughter was a little child, her most important fellow was a small stuffed penguin. “Pingu” accompanied her 24 hours a day, she couldn’t sleep or eat without him, and he even had to swim in her bathtub. For her, he was like a Super Mom & Super Dad in one.
I had forgotten that experience when one day I read the story of Paul Nicklen about the personality of penguin parents:
„An incredible amount of responsibility, dedication, and devotion are required to raise a single emperor penguin chick. It takes a full-time effort on behalf of both parents- one goes out to sea to hunt food for the baby, and the other stays behind to keep it warm and safe. The love a parent expresses for their child is one of our most powerful emotions, but it is also on display in abundance amongst the emperor penguin colonies of Antarctica.“ (Paul Nicklen about his fine art print parenthood)
At this moment the memory of Katarina‘s “Pingu” awoke and the idea raised up in my mind to create earrings showing penguins. But having an idea is far away from the realization.
Some weeks later I met Vincenzo, the Italian artist who is creating all the nice little handcarved sea elements of my Meerglanz jewellery. By discussing the penguins project, we came to the conclusion to choose a camee as centerpiece of Super Mom and Super Dad. A few weeks later I received the first example.
picture of manufacturing process
Now the discussion with the goldsmith began, how to set the camee, which design for the backside of the earrings and what’s about setting of gemstones many details had to be considered. At the same time I was looking for the perfect combination of gemstones, as the basic colours of the cammees were white and chocolate, I wanted to give them a heartwarming touch on the one hand, but on the other one an extravagant colourmix that underlined the incomparable artwork.
By checking my stock of gemstones I came to the conclusion that a range of pink and red could exactly be the composition I was looking for. So I selected fair mined pink Sapphires, Rhodolithes and Pink Opals. Based on the final excellent craftsmanship of Vincenzo & Alex my vision of Super Mom & Super Dad became reality.
