Thats what I've been doing for the past three days, running around. No time for blogging, no time for sketching, no time for me! But now all that is over and done with and im back to doing what I love. Did an interview with Natalie Bernhard from french-bakelite jewelry, aka Hanna Bernhard. Very excited to show you this!
When did you start designing?
I have started to design jewelry about 20 years ago.
Where did you come up with the idea to make jewelry like this? Any inspirations?
I have always loved jewelry, massive pieces. I am also an antique dealer and have once come accross a huge pinapple pin in a flea market. Seller asked me if I was interested to get more, that is how I met someone who was working for big names like Nina Ricci. He taught me what I know, also taught it to my husband who was a dental prothesis at that time.
We are both inspired by nature, we love animals, this has a lot to do with our childhoods.
What process do you go through to make your jewelry?
Our pieces are mostly tridimensional so we are have to make a sculpture first; if the sculpture is good, there is a good chance that the piece of jewelry will be too, of course there is still a lot to do after this 1st step, but it is the base. We use brass settings and elements, everything is soldered point by point. We include many vintage elements in our jewelry, most of the time we would not be able to make a duplicate, even if we were asked for it. We don't use any molds. Stones are prongset.
Was it hard to get any recognition for your jewelry?
This comes little by little as we are not working hard to get this recognition, we are rather discrete.
Some people around the world collect our jewelry; with expansion of internet and blogs, even if they don't want to share, it is now more and more difficult to keep secrets :)
About how long does it take to make your creations?
It is a difficult question as we always work on many different pieces at the same time, but each of them is generally a lot of work.
Whats your favorite piece? Why?
I love peacocks, probably also because of colors which are my favorites.
I thought about the fact that she wasn't working hard to get any recognition and I really liked that idea. If you create your own jewelry, and you know its good (cause Hanna Bernhard IS good), then why bother trying to get the recognition to come to you by force? If you're good at what you do, people will take notice. :)
