Eve discusses Gems, Color and the Creative Process for “Voyage to Antarctica.”

In anticipation of the gallery’s upcoming exhibit opening party, artist and custom jewelry designer Eve J. Alfillé speaks about the gems, the colors, the creative process and the emotions surrounding her new design series “Voyage to Antarctica.”  RSVP Online for this special gallery event on May 4, 2013.

The purest white, and the bluest of sky.

Q. Does the sun have an influence in the creation of the jewelry?

Eve: The sun is a condition of working in Antarctica. There are only a few who have stayed there during the dark days and nights. There is no contrast without the sun.

Q. What emotions do you want collectors, visitors and guests to have when the view the new series ?

Eve: I believe they will feel ‘awe ‘: awe evoked by the beauty, the majesty and power of the experience. It is where humility balances the inspiration and the feeling of omnipotence. Being in ‘awe’ is a pause for reflection.

Q. Were you inspired by any individual gem?

Eve: I’ve always been fascinated by opals and moonstones. An opal is one of the most versatile gems. It could be used as part of a landscape, or like here, an icescape. It’s a place where the imagination can find scenes in Antarctica…reflected. And moonstones capture light in a filtered way, very much the same way ice does.

“Night, Snow, Moon” earrings. 2 drusy black agate, 2 Brazilian chalcedony, 2 carved oval moonstones set in 18k gold +18k white gold

Q. Let’s talk about the creation process. Once you have the idea, what is the process you go through to make it come alive?

Eve: The process is more about isolating the emotion(s). I wait for years sometimes until I have a specific vision of the colors and shapes I want associated with a particular series, and I won’t release a piece for production until I am completely sure it ‘sings’!

Q. What is the emotion for the new Series?

Eve: Immensity. Solitude (which is different from loneliness). Being able to contemplate life from a very distant perspective.

When I identified where these emotions originated, I realized it was from the pictures I had seen from my son, Paul. Once the emotions and their origin are identified, then I start to see colors, textures and light as if I was standing in Antarctica seeing all the experiences for myself.

Q. What were some of the colors you started to see?

Eve: Pictures don’t really show all of the ‘sun’ colors, so I visualize myself in Antarctica. I begin to feel the experiences of seeing the sun rising and setting and the colors as they appear on the ice, the water and even the few animals that live in the immense space.

Now I can begin to identify the materials that capture the experience.

Gem Stones & Design Inspiration

Q: Are there gems that reflect the vision of a series?

Dream Series necklace “Autumn Festivities”

Eve: It depends on my inspiration and where it takes me.  In the Passage of Time, I like the colors of the rainbow in sapphires.  Most people know of the blue sapphire, however, sapphires have an exquisite array of colors: reds and pinks, violets, yellows, and a lovely subtle green like sumptuous velvet.

In Nature, especially the Organic Series, there are stones that hold a vision of where they came from in the earth: Drusy gems, crystals, and jaspers, all stones that look as though they were found in the road!

In Dream, you’ll see pearls, moonstones and opals.  All of these stones or gems have lovely characteristics of light that travel across the surface in different ways revealing unexpected colors.  Diamonds too carry the light, and the memory of the light, whether they are sparkling white, rough, opaque or opalescent, or even, magically, a shimmering absolute black!

“Jazz Age” Eve J Alfille’s New Jewelry Series

“Jazz Age” New Jewelry Series

Welcome to Eve J Alfille Gallery & Studio’s new jewelry series, “Jazz Age”. Take a moment to explore the thoughts, inspirations and creations of the Artist’s Statement.

In French schools, the recent past is not taught: too fresh to be history, it may revive controversy. So my high school classes learned all about Versailles and the Baroque style, but nothing about Art Deco, or jazz. Though ‘The Jazz Age’ usually denotes a period in the late 1920’s, its great innovations in style extended long past the 1929 crash. The elegance of Art Deco, coupled with its practicality and relative simplicity, “suggesting better times”, still speaks to us today.

As a child, what had impressed me was the wild romanticism of Art Nouveau, the Paris Metro entrances, the soaring street lights with their sweeping curves. On the other hand, I had nothing but contempt for my parents’ 1940’s furniture, with their restrained, stylized curves, the symmetry and repetition of the little corner motifs, chevrons carved and inlaid in contrasting wood. A frisson ran down my spine recently when, in a 2012 auction catalog I spied those exact armchairs, an Art Deco exemplar, quoted for an extremely handsome sum! How I wish I

“Jazz Age” Featured Earrings and Necklace

had them now!

We revere the elegance of this style: ever modern, it can be treated sumptuously with rare materials, like the inlaid Jean Dunand screen I almost bought in Switzerland in 1981, when we spent a couple of years in Geneva, and my mother-in-law’s diamond brooch. But it had also formed a background of our growing years in its more humble interpretations, the facades of the movie theaters in our small towns, the old Philco radios with the pleated wood cases, the streamline toasters of our early years.

I love the functionality, the stylishness: Art Deco is above all a way of seeing, it looks at the pure geometry of everyday objects, the sun, fountains, ocean liners, the pyramids, and translates them into flat decorative motifs that are at once restrained and joyous! For me, what inspired my current Jazz Age series is the particular duality of the style: how it makes room for both movement and repose, exuberance and severity, inspiration from current times and times past. What other decorative style can throw together speedy trains and ancient pyramids, maybe both in the same piece?

“Jazz Age” pendant

In this series, I have to remind myself to proceed past restraint: it’s permitted to be joyous, even with nothing but the black, white and gray diamonds and pearls! And no problem letting rubies in, just remember to color within the lines! So we will work from both ends, the pastels of moonstones, Ceylon sapphires and opals, and the glorious reds, oranges and yellows of jades, citrines, topaz and rubies. I design, hearing the jazz of Coltrane and Davis, the coolness and the splendor alternating. White gold and palladium for coolness, blush gold for delicacy, all are playing a role in my new Jazz Age series.

Final 2 Shopping Days

Eve makes it look easy.

Beautiful gems, glittering gold…shop online at http://www.evejewerly.com or come into our store! 623 Grove Street in Evanston. We’ll personally help you to shop for the right present. Open until 6:00 p.m. tonight and tomorrow until 4:00!

Fine Jewelry Gifts by Eve

Each year, you always wonder what to get for that special person in your life. Eve’s fine jewelry are always a perfect gift as wonderful gems of diamonds, sapphires, citrines and pearls grace the body allowing you to feel special and simply beautiful.

Here are a few suggestions worth exploring. Each of these wonderful fine jewelry works of art can be found and purchased right at the website www.evejewelry.com.

Earring of Onyx and Sterling Silver $66

Necklace14 karat gold, garnets, quartz and amber $155

Bracelet of tourmalines, chalcedony, iolite, amethyst, agate, labradorite, freshwater pearls and sterling silver $55

Ring of 18k gold, purple sapphire & diamond $1680.