I think this jewellery that I call Atlantis, has a feeling of hidden depths. The movement of your body, when you wear these designs, changes the light that touches each bead and metal shape. The intense, rich flashes of colour glow and shimmer, and bring the jewellery to life.
Honica
I love playing at my table piled high with heaps of warm glowing amber, cool dark jade, bright turquoise, and the myriad other stones and beads which make up this collection. It’s like a giant puzzle that must be sorted and pieced together into a finished picture.
And, of course, I can’t resist picking up my magnifying glass occasionally to trace the delicate webbing of dark matrix in turquoise, or to peer more closely into the golden depths of an amber nugget, or to speculate on the traces of pre-history encased there.
Matching colours, shapes and patterns of stones, texturing and tinting the brass, freehand forming the airy wire forms—I hope that you will enjoy wearing these designs as thoroughly as I have delighted in making them.
I fell in love with amber at first sight. I was attracted to its beautiful, golden warmth, to the sense of history in its formation, and to the many cultures who value it as personal adornment and sculpture.
And, there is so much in amber; the play of light and its fluid, organic forms provide a window to the fascinating things inside. This fossilized tree resin will contain bits of bark, charcoal, plant seeds, air bubbles, tunnels formed by insects, and sometimes even the insects themselves.
I complement these natural elements with antiqued brass—hand-forged and roller printed into organic textures, or richly coloured with verdigris patina.
A contemporary collection with history and value.
The designs in this collection all feature green jade from Canada. This is truly a gemstone that represents the wilderness. The largest jade reserves still remain in the secret places of the rugged mountains and tumultuous rivers of British Columbia.
Jade has always brought to me the feelings of the places where my heart was most at peace. In my long ago childhood on the prairies, this place was 'The Springs.' Surrounded by chokecherries and poplars, this little stream of crystal clear water was a cool, quiet refuge on warm, summer afternoons.
More recently, I cherish memories of walks here in BC, walks in the spongy, soft soils of a cedar grove, where the very air seems greened by fern fronds and mounds of moss.
I find these quiet places to be both healing and joyful.
If you are interested in the psychic qualities of green jade, it is described as a stone with a heart of healing. Its energies are so strong and steady that one can feel a flow of well-being and balance almost immediately on touching this beautiful gemstone. And, when you can't go outdoors, green jade can help bring nature's energies into even the most artificial environment, thus aiding both emotional and physical well-being.
The oldest known jewellery ever found contained turquoise. The bracelets of Queen Zer of Egypt, who reigned 7500 years ago, were made of turquoise and cast gold. Many ancient civilizations, from the Aztecs to the Persians, placed a high value on turquoise, and used it in home decoration, as mediums of exchange, and as personal adornment.
This beautiful stone always makes me think of 'the small blue-green planet' we call Earth. From sky blue to mossy green, with irregular webbing of a darker matrix, each bead and nugget is an individual wonder. I often include Chrysocolla, Russian Amazonite, BC Jade, and other stones in these jewellery compositions.
Each earring, bracelet and necklace will include handworked brass which I prepare in my studio. These will range from simple, antiqued circles in which to suspend a bead, to brass shapes which will require more complex techniques such as firing, hand-forging, roller texturing, patination and antiquing—all of which I do in my studio.
As the Hubble telescope orbits our earth, it captures images of incredible power and beauty. Recently, I saw its colour photographs of the Perfect Storm, which is located in the Swan Nebula, some 5,500 light years from earth.
The colours in the photograph are an incredible eruption of burning yellow, flaming orange, and a deep burgundy bronze set against cool, swirling blues and greens in endless variety.
These designs exploded instantly into my consciousness—I saw jewellery reflecting all the turbulence of this bubbling ocean of hydrogen, oxygen, sulphur, and other elements.
I immediately raided my bead boxes for the complex palette I would need… rare agates, iridescent apatite, Russian amazonite, Baltic amber, ocean picture jasper, flame-worked glass, fumed crystal, and at least twenty more… a fierce gale of colour.
Then, I prepared the brass forms which I hand-forge, texture and antique, and gathered the beads in dense clusters of unusual brilliance into the composition.
Original earrings, unique necklaces… let the vibrations of these colours send you into orbit.
I felt like an author losing control of her characters. One day I was designing a Passion for Purple necklace, and I happened to have Spiced Gold on the adjoining table. Well! There was no keeping them apart—it was love at first sight. Less than nine days later, Gloriana was born.
The perfect pairing of purple with the lavish luxury of spiced gold produced a portrait of royalty, with gloriously opulent colours, and deeply dramatic textures.
Austrian crystals gilded with real gold, burnished bronze pearls, hand-made glass, luxurious amethyst and the occasional drop of golden amber come together in glorious fusion with hand-worked, antiqued, polished brass. As always, I make each piece of jewellery entirely by hand, each necklace and bracelet has its own unique identity, and I make each earring to follow my own original design.
Reach for the radiance of royalty—arrive in a blaze of glory.
Honica
These gloriously dramatic neckpieces are Honica's most exuberant designs.
Each one is a celebration of feminine originality, strength and confidence.
Honica
The focus of each pendant is a beautifully polished ammonite fossil that displays every detail of its intricate spiral. To complete the composition I attach layers of brass that I handwork in different ways—cut, antique, engrave, forge, and polish.
Necklaces feature agates, jade, pearls, bronzite, petrified wood, chrysanthemum stone, glass, Austrian crystal, in rich shades of deep, coppery gold, and dark chocolate, enhanced by the subtle sheen of brass that I have formed and folded, textured and forged.
Honica
Summer is gone. So long awaited and then quickly past. This is the essential melancholy of autumn, that we mourn the approaching loss of the sun's warmth and light.
Even so, fall has always been my favourite season. Bike rides and walks with my dog Rupp are quieter now, and often, softly grey. Early morning mists sift down through the trees to drizzle diamond droplets onto grass stems. Shards of light pierce the clouds as fog horns boom in the heavy, silent air.
This season of transition has many moods. Its clear, cold nights paint the trees brilliant hues, then its stormy turbulence may strip these leaves from their bony branches in a single afternoon.
But, with this jewellery collection, I want to express the gentle grey neutrals of early morning, when vapours obscure distant details and, for a moment at least, the sun breaks through to create jewels of bright prisms all around.
And now there came both mist and snow,
And it grew wondrous cold:
And ice, mast high, came floating by,
As green as emerald.
- from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
On a magical winter day in 1984, in the Alberta Rocky Mountains, we discovered a spectacular iceberg, which had formed when the giant aqueduct from the Kananaskis Lakes sprayed water from its cracks and created frozen, blue mountains shining in the sun. In that solitude of ice and deep, deep snow the world was hushed and perfect.
The memories and photos we cherish of that experience provide the perfect inspiration for this jewellery, and bear a direct relationship to the stones I have chosen for these designs.
I complement the subtle hues of these cool colours with warm tones of brass which I texture, forge, antique and polish in the studio.
Honica
Allow your senses to luxuriate in the delectable textures and flavours of this jewellery. I have designed this collection using hand-made techniques little changed since the ancient days of the spice caravans.
Blended, like a good curry—complex, subtle and warm—this collection features the deep, rich sheen of 24 karat gold leaf fused to the cool, curved surfaces of the hand-made glass. Shimmering bronze pearls, earth-toned, antiqued brass, and a generous sprinkling of fossils and semi-precious gemstones are fused in this collection.
The colours and forms suggest a glamorous femininity that is passionate and bold.
Consider the richness and complexity of tribal life… steeped in tradition, history and stories. Tribal traditions create strength and harmony. But, to survive and thrive, every society needs a kind of kinetic creativity to avoid the decline that comes with a rigidity of ideas. All people, particularly women, suffer when tradition overwhelms their most important values.
When new ideas are introduced, the sparks will fly in spontaneous debate and ignite fires of renewal. And, just as the intense, powerful and commanding colours of this jewellery, it’s not subtlety that is celebrated here, but the bright, strong energy of the individual spirit.
Value the strengths of your traditions, but keep the faith and freedom to leap into the unknown future with hope and imagination.
Honica
First discovered in Labrador, Canada, in 1805, Labradorite (sometimes called Black Moonstone) is a stone of dancing lights.
I've lived and traveled in places where I have witnessed the extraordinary phenomenon we call the Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights. Coloured lights dancing in the night sky. Spectacular, awesome, magical—a never to be forgotten experience.
Labradorite embodies that night magic for me. I have chosen a variety of semi-precious glass beads, glass and crystal to complement the textures and colours of the antiqued brass forms which I have handworked for each earring, bracelet, necklace and brooch. Designed to be subtle in colour and rich in mystery.
Honica
