At last I can show you a little sneak peak into Contour, my new jewelry collection. First, a little explanation of the name of the new jewelry collection. Why Contour?

From the dictionary:
contour |ˈkänˌtoŏr|noun (usu. contours)
an outline, esp. one representing or bounding the shape or form of something : she traced the contours of his face with her finger. | figurative the contours of American life.

Perhaps you remember, I was talking in an earlier blog post about the process of creating the pieces. Basically it went like this: I crocheted wire, used my fancy rolling mill to flatten it, then digitized it. The result was an outline of the original crocheted piece. Contour!

With the help of my friend Liz, of www.anomalydesign.com, who also happens to be a fab graphic designer, not to mention a very patient teacher, we took that original piece and transformed it into many shapes - circles, ovals, teardrops, and squares. Thank you Liz! You rock!

Arranging all these shapes into one file and getting it right was no easy task. Thank god for good friends! With the help of my good friend Enrique, who happens to be a whiz with photoshop, we got my digital file off to Israel where it actually got reproduced onto metal (under the watchful eye of my mother, thank you Ima!) .

I received the parts back here in San Francisco, and had a blast making them into magnificent pieces of finished jewelry by adding beads, and combining different pieces together. This time, I focused primarily on combining the three metal colors together 24K gold, Rose Gold and Silver, to create two and even three-tone pieces. I combined the pieces with Freshwater Pearls, Mother of Pearl, Blue Kyanite, Black Onyx, Red Cherry Quartz, Citrine and bright blue Turquoise. The result is before you… well partially… this is a sneak peak… The collection in it’s entirety has over 100 pieces. I will have the entire jewelry line available online before Xmas, so stay tuned!

So here we are - Introducing Contour 09. My new baby!

Keren

Long wires Earrings

Bracelet

Bracelet

Earrings

Earrings

Earrings

Earrings

Earrings

Necklace

Necklace

Necklace

Necklace

Necklace

Necklace

Tags: 24K gold, Black Onyx, Blue Kyanite, bright blue Turquoise, Citrine, collection, contour, crochet, designer, Freshwater Pearls, jewelry, Mother of Pearl, Red Cherry Quartz, Rose Gold, Silver, three-tone pieces
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Holly smokes what have I been though in the last two weeks! Trying to get this collection done in time might still happen, still on course, but man!

You will not believe this, I still don’t believe it. I broke my ankle (!) biking two weeks ago. At first I thought it was just a sprained ankle so didn’t go to the emergency room. This was Saturday . On Monday, when the “sprain” was not getting any better, I went to see a doctor, who took an x ray and informed me “young lady, your ankle is fractured”. Fractured ?!?! And further more “I recommend surgery, immediately”. Surgery?!  Immediately ?! Me?! What in the world has happened here?

Now I am in recovery. Good people are taking care of me :)  Fortunately, as I explained before, the designing work on the new collection is mostly done on the computer. I don’t have to be hopping around from one place to another (I have actually gotten pretty good at hopping around, walking though is a different story all together). So when I am not sleeping, I have been able to get the work done, a little slower but it’s going!

The concept of the collection is “crochet drawing”. I wanted to see what I can do! If I can crochet it, can I draw it? And if I can, can I draw it on a graphics tablet using a digital pen?

The answer is a resounding YES!!! I am attaching a picture an UNFINISHED oval and its drawing for you to check it out. Drawing on right, actual metal part on left. Even with a broken leg, I was so ecstatic to see them come to life!

The next step is to plate the parts, that are made of a base metal, with gold, silver and rose gold. Then, I can put together a fab new jewelry collection! My blog readers will also get a sneak preview to the collection once it’s actually done in a couple of weeks. Stay tuned!

Keren

I am often asked about where I get my inspiration for my designs, by friends, relatives, partners, reps and even journalists (yes, I do get interviewed from time to time, check out my press page for more info - press .There are a few new PR pieces I haven’t put up yet so stay tuned :o) )

Usually the answer to that question is that I travel a lot. I get inspired by architecture, nature, what’s happening in fashion, people on the street, fabrics, flowers and more and more. It all sort of mixes up in my head and then a design comes up. It often just happens like that, I get a complete mental image of the piece.

Sometimes I don’t. Sometimes I doodle on paper or in my sketch book (or on napkins, receipts or whatever is handy. Inspiration doesn’t always come at the most convenient times), and play around with shapes and how they react with each other. I always start with some kind of drawing. Usually, the finished piece ends up looking a little different than the drawing, which is natural. Metal behaves differently than a drawing on paper and I am pretty used to that.

This time I have to say that my inspiration comes from technology. As I mentioned in my previous posting I am paying around with a rolling mill and thinking “I wonder what this thing can actually do…” This with a combination of playing with Photoshop and Illustrator… It seems like working backwards, usually I use technology to create my existing designs. This time I am letting technology drive my designs… we’ll  see what I come up with!

Also, I have been connecting with other jewelry designers and manufacturing facilities and have been learning a lot about techniques and more ways of doing things. It’s really fun, exciting and I feel like a sponge. I listen. And then it all brews and my head, and hopefully, as by magic, a collection will come out of it :o)

Keep you posted,
Keren

I have recently (as in a few days ago) finally began working on my new jewelry collection. I have been thinking about it for a white and at last I am doing something about it.

A couple of weeks ago I went and got me a rolling mill which I have been wanting for soooooooo long. A rolling mill is like a big pasta machine with two wheels (see below a link to one on Amazon). Imagine a pasta machine that you put the dough through and you get Fettuccini or Ravioli etc. So in my case, I put sheets on metal in there, along with anything that would create a texture such as paper, lace, fabric, crushed nuts or seeds or even leaves!

(I just have to watch out not to get my fingers in there. when I was setting it up there were a couple of close calls with dropping the thing on my toes! Fortunately those were close calls, so I’m fine :o) )

This allows me to play around with different textures on metal, and then turn the textured sheets into jewelry We’ll see what I come up with! So far I have had a few fun tries with sheets of brass, copper and silver nickel.

Stay tuned!
Keren

Malcolm Gladwell is one of my favorite writers. I am now listening to his newest book, Outliers, and I am simply getting goosebumps from the revelations and the implications of what it is he’s saying. His ideas always go back to the thought that small changes can make huge differences, and he explores the concept in the most fascinating ways. I am just blown away by how he can think of finding these angles of and sides to occurrences that are so ordinary and yet so extraordinary at the same time.

Outliers starts with a description of a small village in Italy that basically moved itself and became a small town in Pennsylvania. The amazing thing about this little town is that “these people die of old age; that’s it”. A doctor came to visit the town and discovered that the town people had a very low rate of heart attacks, suicide, depression or anything similar. He began a search to discover the reasons how come these people are so healthy. What he found was astonishing and gives me goose bumps also as I am writing about it . They were not eating healthier, exercising more or harder or meditating an hour a day. I’ll let Gladwell explain the findings himself :o)

I often listen to books while I work. I download them from www.audile.com, it’s the best way to keep up with books when you don’t have time to actually sit and read them - like while you’re driving or crocheting :o) If you do end up signing up please tell Audible that you heard about it from me and give them my user name, kerenpeled. I might get an extra credit and you will get karmic kudos :o) So thank you in advance.

Keren

August was my travel month - I consider traveling to be such an important part of my work. It what gives me inspiration, it’s also a great study of trends and for just pure fun education. So - I spent 10 days in Paris. My friend Moana, the fabulous Cabaret singer www.frenchcabaret.net, and I rented an apartment at the La Marais.Really didn’t do anything too strenuous, we weren’t there to “do” the city, but more to experience it’s little joys. We stayed at the Marais which is an old and hip part of town. What did we see - the Louvre for sure. I must say that the best part for both of us was to have (an extremely expensive) cup of coffee in the little cafe at the 2nd or third floor of the building. It directly overlooks the pyramid. Simply remarkable, it must be one of the best spots in Paris.And the Mona Lisa, oh the Mona Lisa. To see her in person is truly amazing. What’s more amazing is the line to see the masterpiece! Here’s a picture of the line: I mean seriously - wow! They had a bunch of French guards that literally yelled at you if you took more than one picture at your turn :o) I was a good girl. Here’s my pic:It’s a fantastic painting and an amazing situation. Everyone would agree that the Mona Lisa is the most famous painting in the world. Visiting the Louvre did make me wonder why it is so as there are so many incredible paintings at the Louvre, that it’s hard to tell why one became so famous and the others did not.More of Paris, I me a lovely woman that might become my France jewelry line rep, that would be wonderful. We had a great little cup of coffee and I showed her some of my jewelry samples, including my favorite necklace that I was wearing, the Lakshmi necklace.I also went to visit , which was great fun. The gardens are some of the most magnificent gardens I have ever seen. The palace itself is of course also amazing, and as I saw later in my trip was the inspiration for several other European palaces. In the gardens, they have classical music blasting so I walked around imagining I was the queen :o) Or not, as most of the royalty did not end up so well. In the tour of the palace I learned that the palace was actually quite full of people all the time, so the king and queen did not have a moment’s peace.Everything they did was in the public domain, including the queen giving birth with a room full of people! Yikes!Other than site seeing Moana and I had some fun with friends, went to a Reggae concert in the park and had a few nice dinners. We mostly ate in the apartment because we really wanted to be healthy and be good! Paris was as wonderful as ever. August is a really great month to visit because it’s not so packed, so there’s a tip :o) I can’t wait to go back to France and check out other parts of it, like say, the French Riviera! Viva La France!

I’ve been back in the States for a couple of weeks now. The JetLag was brutal and the Melatonin did not help much. It really took that long to get back to normal - at first I was up at 3 am and then got maybe 1/2 an hour of extra sleep a night and now I’m back to Normal. I have been out of the states for so long, so I guess it makes sense. Later this week I’ll add pictures from my time away in Israel, Spain, Portugal and France with some stories. Maybe I’ll do one blog posting per country. Yeah - now that’s a good idea :o)

Working on updating the website with the new 2008 collections - there are actually two new jewelry collections! One that I did for LA fashion week that was really more Haute Couture, and it’s higher price point. Lots of Labradorite and Garnet and very large dramatic pieces. Well- that’s what they asked for - “big and bold” :o)

Another collection that I did in Israel was the ready to wear style casual jewelry that one could wear to the office etc. Much more accessible jewelry price wise as well - so stay tuned!

It’s a lot of work. I get all the jewelry descriptions and stuff done in Excel and I need to choose names for the jewelry pieces, which is an interesting process actually. I name my jewelry after goddesses so I need to make sure the goddess fits the piece and feels right :o) and then write a short description etc.

I have to get it done this week. Promise, if you don’t see the updates by the end of the week and feel free to e-mail me - “Keren where is it?! You promised”.

That’s it for now. Accountability is the name of the game, and visibility equals accountability although some people higher up tend to forget about that. But not us.

Keren