You never know where inpiration hides!

...and how it can hit you so suddenly...

The other day I spotted these 'flowers on the green hay'. 

Examining the shirt more closely... I got even more surprised...

In the days gone by, Finnish textile industry was thriving. Now it has almost disappeared.That's why coming across with this piece wasn't self-evident.

My size always was 36... Even though I'm not from Lahti, I certainly am from Finland and my name IS Tiina. The sizes have changed since the 1970s, and could't fit in this cute shirt. What a pity. So, I had to figure out something else.

The small size didn't stop me from buying this garment from its hiding place, the flea market, and when looking at the flowers, the color, the shape...I got a heureka. I remembered the glass flowers I had in my drawer. Just as if they had been sitting there, waiting for this blouse to appear.

Sometimes, the busy material needs a calm contrast. With this shirt I couldn't resist making the flowers of the blouse three-dimensional and mixing the colors even more. 

 Now I think the blouse and the necklace are inseparable! One can't be without the other!

They will be friends forever!

 Just look at them. Could you separate these two?

I sure can pose them beautifully and display them but now that you have seen them with the blouse: 'Don't they look barren and alone?' Sweet and juicy as candy, but still...Just a necklace without 

a story...

Sky is my inspiration

I look up in the sky and I will never be bored.

  

The colors and shapes vary every moment.



The blinding sun makes me see everything in dark shades. The moving figures make my imagination race.




Suddenly the migrating white birds appear in the sky.

  

The birds have spread their wings and glide free in the wind, just like my imagination. They start looking for the best place to settle down and nest, just like my jewelry - finding the best person to carry each piece.

 This piece was inspired by the gentle birds and the tiny sweet water pearls, as clouds and gleaming, faceted glass in shades of water and sky.

Where will this flight of birds nest? Tell me!

The apple of my eye

To say to your dearest: ”You are the apple of my eye”, is sweet. But to make your words and feelings visible every day is an another story. Words, thoughts and goals are easily forgotten in the rush of the everyday bustle, but when you give your words and promises a concrete form, readily seen and touched as a symbol, they aren’t so easily forgotten. One simple glance at this symbol brings a whole story to your consciousness filling you with the words pronounced earlier.

The ideology of Lady Renaissance is based on the belief that all our life is full of stories to be told and shared with other people. This jewelry enables you to tell the stories you want to tell and the messages you want o convey to your dearest ones, or to yourself and people around you. The value of jewelry for me it isn’t always a question of precious stones, the weight of precious metals or representation of widely recognized brands. If we want to be individual and unique, why would we like to express these qualities in ourselves with bulk products then? Do we want to be considered one of the kind in the same way as others?

With jewelry you can challenge the viewers’ imagination and mind. The message doesn’t have to be obvious. Would you read a book, the cover of which would make the contents predictable? Wouldn’t you like to think for yourself and find out the underlying message? Wouldn’t you like to have several different interpretations?
I have an interpretation for this necklace but I’d like to hear yours.
Is there someone you know that this piece would fit perfectly?

Sound of Summer on my Sister's neck

Who says that jewelry should only give a visual experience? Creating this necklace as a present for my twin sister was also an auditive process. 

Thinking of my gorgeously tall, dark haired sister, my fingers kept fondling the shapes of these beautifully shimmering pieces of natural sea shell. I wanted them to stay in close contact with each other, while still moving apart on their own, just as me and my sis. I aimed at making this a statement piece proudly saying: "Look at me and my graceful posture!

The small, transparent seed beads give an easily and loosely moving and almost invisible thread for the pieces while ressembling water drops at the same time. 

The nice rustling sound the necklace makes on her neck reminds her of me and summer and her love for water and underwater world.

What would be your favorite sound on your neck?

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?