Have you ever held an emerald worth more than your home, or a looked into a ruby that has infinite depth but is the size of your little finger nail, breathtaking and forever memorable and just a part of the wonderful experience that it was to 'spend time' with Adrian Lewis.
This post has been waiting in my vault, why, I am unsure, but I feel now it's time is ripe, please enjoy.
..True story but I used to actually collect broken beer bottles in the street and broken glass and I used to create tiaras [huh] and jewellery for my mother out of 'cause they were like emeralds and diamonds to me... so poor thing she would have to go to these dinner parties with this tiara or [you know] an earring on which was basically cardboard with glitter and broken bits of beer bottle. Of course she would leave the house with them on but she would always put them in the glove box so I thought she was going to the party with them, an when she'd come home she'd have them on [huh]still, but years later she told me.. She didn't wear them to the party..
..You see my step father was a member of the Melbourne Club, and [um] every Oaks Day they'd have this drinks party and I used to have to go under duress after the races..and I arrive there one afternoon a bit late and my mother and step father were there [and um]I said to my mother 'what are you wearing' because in a crowd she was hard to find..She'd gone and bought this coat from 'Armani', looked like, I don't know, feathers, white feathers 'puff really' I guess you'd call it..Anyway I get to the Melbourne Club and here's me wondering through this sea of cold Laura Ashley dresses and little strings of pearls and diamonte brooches and trying to find this woman in this [huh] white feathered jacket..Anyway it took me about half an hour and then I started to look a bit closer at some of these men, and, there were bits of white feather and fluff on the backs of their suits and on their shoulders, and I'd sort of go past another chap and there would be another feather and [sort of] fluff, I started to work out that if I followed all these men and their suits and its a true story, low and behold there's a parting of these people and there was this 'apparition' in white feathers sort of 'swans' down-fluff, pink lips and blonde hair, and of course I found her and this was my mother..
..So, the lusciousness in her and what I grew up in drove me in another direction that is much more abstract, and far more stylised and sort of, I guess, not primitive but the lines are stronger and I guess more masculine in a way [um] but neutral and calm ..
..She [Mother] gave me a great appreciation of women and the strength in women..because my mother was a strong woman [um] but I think that also understanding the softness and the femininity attached to it as well..
..My father was in England at the time and would give my sister and I some money to go back to England on holiday and my sister went back and I thought I would start my own business with the money and I would be back in six months, it was about ten years later I think that I got to go back [ha]..the great thing was, I started my own business..
..Australia is extremely relaxed and casual in its lifestyle, which is the only downside of the industry because you don't really need jewellery in Australia, it's not a craft that's really appreciated for what it is as opposed to Europe or America or other countries where it's a big part of every day life and it's a part of your status and it's a part of dowry's and inheritance and all that sort of thing..
..There's some funny stories too where the husband's run off and bought an anniversary present and the poor wife's had it sitting on the knicker drawer for seven years because it was so harendous that she's never worn it at all and she's had to wait until he's forgotten about it before she can bring it in and have it re modelled..
..I love pears because they are out of the oyster how they are, they are not cut and shaped by man, you know..
..And using modest things with extremely valuable things so you put wood with emerald, and you put pearls with copper and you're playing with your mind but you're also playing with, it's like a tease, because not everything has to be highly precious..the lovely thing is to give people surprises..turn it around to the back it should be just as beautiful as the front..the stuff you cant see but you know it's there..
On this hot evening back in December 2014 it felt like we were in a sanctuary, a sanctuary of simplicity, precision and the greatest appreciation for style, beauty, craft and imagination.
There is so much beauty in simplicity, it does not tell you how to think or act, to me great simplicity has a full stop and also a comma.
Thank you Adrian Lewis.
Virginia Dowzer
virginiadowzer.com
