Why Lady Renaissance?

When my daughter was on sixth grade and studied Renaissance in her history class, suddenly at the dinner table she said: "Mom, you are a real Renaissance person." I was astonished and couldn't figure out what she meant and she continued: "See, you can do just anything." She was putting into practice the knowledge she had obtained in class and realized that it was exactly the same with the time of renaissance as what mom was doing when she did everything possible by herself.

Hand work and doing things by hand has been an essential part of my life since childhood. During the busy years of life all that was left behind while all the energy had to be put to the survival in everyday life. Two decades later I was totally exhausted with the heavy life and working as "a combined nurse and an assistant" to my handicapped children at the same time as I had a full time job. It was simply too much to handle. I felt that I didn't exist anymore, there was just Mama. I was absolutely positive that I would never be able to smile again.

However, beauty and hand work saved me. I noticed that a perfect counterbalance for the  absolutely black exhaustion was a strong longing for beauty in me. I looked for beautiful things in flea markets, I started to knit and finally I found stones and pearls shining in shimmering colors. I found out that there are exceptional resources inside ourselves and the best medicine for mental and emotional well-being is the time used in doing things with our own hands.

For me the starting point for making the jewelry is a kind of stream of consciousness. Each one of them represent my feelings and moods with their colors and shapes. I try to avoid symmetry, because I think it's boring. I want things happening in my necklaces and bracelets. I want that the eye can stop at different elements. The person carrying my jewelry can be sure that there is no exact copy of the one she has.

I soon noticed that my friends got interested in my jewelry and one after another wanted to have a personal and unique piece made by hand. That is how the business name Lady Renaissance was born.

Very often people say that beauty and even talking about it, is just superficial. For me it is a life saving focus in life and I believe it can be that for many others as well. This is why I like so much the following comment I found in an old book representing Louvre:

 "In the midst of all material conveniences we must preserve interest in anything beautiful and appealing to emotions. No matter if it is a question of master pieces, not decayed by time, modest tools of craftsmen or defective products of simple machines.

- Jean Chatelain, the director of French museums in the 1960s -

What does beauty mean to you?