We have just posted a really good sale on all of our handcrafted earrings' gold and silver. Go to JH Breakell Website for details of this really sweet offer.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Friday, August 13, 2010
Looks like snow
The sun is shining, a warm breeze carries the salt smell of the bay and I am thinking about snow. Individual snowflakes to be more specific. Every summer the process of making the Annual J H Breakell Snowflake begins again. The first and most important question is “What’s the central theme?” Join me for a brief trip in the way-back machine into the Breakell vault for a little background on how we started making snowflakes and why each one has a theme.
In the mid 70’s, with a few years of silversmithing under his belt, Jim was looking for companies to showcase his work. Aiming high, he found success at world renowned Cartier in New York and for a few years their Fifth Avenue store carried his sterling belt buckle and snowflake designs. Fast forward, past frustration with wholesaling his work, a brief stint working for luxury leather goods company, Trafalgar Ltd, the beginnings of a mail order business in our home basement and, finally, to our Mill Street shop in Newport.
By then we had a small catalog and in 1992 we featured two of Jim’s old snowflake designs as pins. Another of Jim’s snowflake pin designs appeared almost every winter thereafter but it wasn’t until 1999 that we had our Aha! Moment. Some folks were predicting doom and others were planning parties but everyone was pretty excited about the approaching Millennium. By then I had taken over designing the snowflakes and I used the Roman numeral two thousand, MM, as the pattern for the new Snowflake ‘99 Pin. To appeal to a wider audience than just pin wearers, which I am not, we decided to make it a Christmas Tree Ornament as well. Eureka! Before you could say Merry Christmas, all the old snowflakes were made into ornaments and The Snowflake Collection was born.
Since then, I’ve worked out each year’s pattern using the iconography of Christmas, winter or New England. Trees, stars, peace doves, snow angels, sailboats and even the state of Rhode Island have found their way into the pattern of a snowflake over the years. So now, as the sun shines and the beach beckons, I am back to thinking about snow and all the images we associate with winter and Christmas. A real snowflake reflects the natural symmetry and extravagance of nature and nothing more. Who needs a theme when there’s not another one the same among billions. But we have always liked to tell stories with our work and every year since 1999 we’ve done that with the new snowflake. It’s up to you to recognize the pattern. Bells and Holly are front runners for the theme this year. It’s decision time.
In the mid 70’s, with a few years of silversmithing under his belt, Jim was looking for companies to showcase his work. Aiming high, he found success at world renowned Cartier in New York and for a few years their Fifth Avenue store carried his sterling belt buckle and snowflake designs. Fast forward, past frustration with wholesaling his work, a brief stint working for luxury leather goods company, Trafalgar Ltd, the beginnings of a mail order business in our home basement and, finally, to our Mill Street shop in Newport.
By then we had a small catalog and in 1992 we featured two of Jim’s old snowflake designs as pins. Another of Jim’s snowflake pin designs appeared almost every winter thereafter but it wasn’t until 1999 that we had our Aha! Moment. Some folks were predicting doom and others were planning parties but everyone was pretty excited about the approaching Millennium. By then I had taken over designing the snowflakes and I used the Roman numeral two thousand, MM, as the pattern for the new Snowflake ‘99 Pin. To appeal to a wider audience than just pin wearers, which I am not, we decided to make it a Christmas Tree Ornament as well. Eureka! Before you could say Merry Christmas, all the old snowflakes were made into ornaments and The Snowflake Collection was born.
Since then, I’ve worked out each year’s pattern using the iconography of Christmas, winter or New England. Trees, stars, peace doves, snow angels, sailboats and even the state of Rhode Island have found their way into the pattern of a snowflake over the years. So now, as the sun shines and the beach beckons, I am back to thinking about snow and all the images we associate with winter and Christmas. A real snowflake reflects the natural symmetry and extravagance of nature and nothing more. Who needs a theme when there’s not another one the same among billions. But we have always liked to tell stories with our work and every year since 1999 we’ve done that with the new snowflake. It’s up to you to recognize the pattern. Bells and Holly are front runners for the theme this year. It’s decision time.
Joan Breakell
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