Today is the final day of the first leg of my Ariane Zurcher Jewelry trunk show in New York City. Next week I’m in Chicago and the following week Aspen, Colorado. It’s a – three trunk shows, in three cities, in three weeks – tour!
I’ve written about how I started designing jewelry ‘here‘ and about the genesis of my Transition Collection as a way of finding that elusive “balance” of family and work that so many talk about, but that I never seem to actually achieve, ‘here‘.
I won’t go into any of that again, but like everything in life, it’s impossible to compartmentalize career, family, children and friends into neat little boxes where nothing overlaps with anything else. Â And even if it were possible, I wouldn’t want to do it. Â I love that design influences life and life influences design. Â That these different elements weave together to create something unique is what I respond to when I look at any art, whether it’s a painting, ceramics, sculpture, clothing or jewelry.
18 Kt Brushed White Gold, Druzy and Natural Pearl Ring
My daughter, Emma, has begun writing stories. Â Those of you who follow my other blog, Emma’s Hope Book, will have likely read some of her writing as I’ve posted it there, with her permission, more and more. Â What I love about reading her stories is how unexpected they are. Â Every sentence is a surprise, a tiny, sparkling, gem of an idea, beautifully wrapped up in words that take my breath away.
Recently Emma told me she was interested in jewelry!  Before I pack up this trunk show, I plan to ask her to point out a few things she particularly likes.  Words and jewels…  the apple didn’t fall far…
Sometimes what’s reflected is easier to see than the thing being reflected.  I wrote about this and the nature of  progress on my other blog, Emma’s Hope Book the other day.
EHB is the blog where I write about being a parent and autism and how my daughter has helped me see the world differently. Â It’s ironic that her neurology, the thing so many believe to be a massive deficit – autism – has shown me a world far more beautiful than I ever dreamed or believed possible.
Reflection is like that sometimes.  We see things in a reflection that we might have missed were we to look directly.  Art and inspiration are like that too.
I took this photograph in Central Park this July 4th. Â Had you asked me what the weather was like I would have told you – clear blue skies and hot, hot, hot.
“Hot town, summer in the city
Back of my neck getting dirty and gritty
Been down, isn’t it a pity
Doesn’t seem to be a shadow in the city”
When my daughter, Emma was diagnosed with autism I threw myself into research the way a starving man forages for scraps. Â I describe it this way, because the degree of desperation I felt was acute, and at the time, I viewed autism as “life-threatening”. Â It saddens me now, looking back, that the information we were given regarding autism and what that supposedly meant, for not only our daughter, but for all of us, has not changed dramatically. Â How many parents to newly diagnosed children will feel what I once felt? Â How many parents will go home and throw themselves into the monumental task of educating themselves about autism and will read similar stories as I once did? Â How many parents will believe that “recovery” from Autism is a concrete and noble goal for their child? Â How many parents will fall into line pursuing any number of dubious treatments all in the name of “saving” their child? Â Because I can tell you, that pursuit, that mind-set of desperately seeking “recovery” from Autism is a dangerous mirage.
About a year and a half into my “research” my husband, Richard came to me and expressed his concern, not for Emma, though he absolutely loves both our children and feels concern for their well-being, not for her diagnosis, not for anything we were or weren’t doing, no, he expressed concern for me.  I remember the feeling of rage that welled up inside of me.  I remember thinking that I hated him for voicing his thoughts.  I remember my outrage and indignation.  I remember.  All because he dared to suggest, “You have to find something that has nothing to do with autism.”  Did he not understand that I was saving our daughter’s life?!  Could he not see that I was single-handedly engaged in a battle?  While he stood there looking at me with love and worry, I fumed.  I no longer remember the words exchanged, I can’t remember our exact conversation, but I remember the gist of it.  I remember how pained he looked when I angrily attacked him, suggesting that were it not for me, our child would be thrown under the proverbial bus.
But my husband is not easily pushed aside.  My husband is a tough negotiator, a dogged persuader, a pit bull in a junk yard, he can go up against the best of them and still come out standing.  In other words, I didn’t have a chance in hell.  Still I put up a good fight.  Richard, not to be undone by my hurling insults, stood firm. You see he understood something I didn’t.  He saw what I was doing and he could see what it was doing to me, even if I couldn’t.  “You’re depressed,” he said.  I glared at him.  “You can’t even see it.”  How do you argue with that?  How can you counter unawareness?  You can’t.  But Richard loves me and kept trying to get through and even though I didn’t understand and didn’t agree with what he was saying I could hear the love in his voice.  I could feel his words.
As a direct result of that difficult conversation I began taking classes in jewelry making. Â I’d gone to Parsons School of Design, majoring in Fashion Design, knew before I’d even graduated with my bachelors degree that fashion design was not for me, and worried that jewelry was too similar, but I was wrong. Â There is something about working with metal, carving a wax model, sketching a new design, figuring out how something will hang or how a clasp will function and yet add an artistry to the piece, that transports me. Â When I am working, time becomes meaningless, the world, worries and fears move into a corner. Â When I am designing and making jewelry it is as though I am in another dimension. Â A magical place where it is just me and my work, there are no words, my emotions become the work, they are embedded in the design. Â Art does not intersect life as much as it becomes life.
After awhile I began selling my work.  My ‘jewelry‘ (click ‘jewelry’ for Ariane Zurcher Jewelry website) began getting noticed, I won some awards, and suddenly two years after having that conversation with my husband, I had a business. In 2010 I began a blog ~ click ‘Emma’s Hope Book‘ ~ where I write about autism, my daughter and the hope she gives me for this world and all the people in it.
Welcome!
Please don’t forget to ‘like’ my ‘Ariane Zurcher Designs‘ Facebook page, by clicking on the link or at the bottom of this post and if you’d like to receive additional posts from this blog, be sure to sign up and follow! Â I will post once a week or so.
I’d love to hear from all of you ~ what inspires you?
Welcome to my store!
Please browse and look at our patterns available. We also offer Workshops! ~Ariane
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