THE WARMTH OF THE SOLEIL

The sun, in french, soleil, is a powerful image in art, architecture and design.  A symbol of intention and focus, I am drawn to ways this potent symbol can enhance the art of jewelry making.

Sunbursts of gold have adorned many a Royal through the ages.  Think of the French King Louis XIV and his work of art, Versailles.      

Gilded gate at the Palace of Versailles

It isn't just the metaphor of Sun as King that is so powerful.  The sunburst yields such promise, that with its rays we have clarity, and we grow.  Vincent Van Gogh features the sun in its golden glory in so many of his mid-career works, the period considered his most optimistic.

Van Gogh's Olive Trees with Yellow Sky and Sun, 1889

Soleil has appeared in my Mom's designs for ages.  Her Sunburst mirrors are always fresh and modern, and take different shapes with every collection she launches.   

Sunburst mirrors, all Jan Showers

Indeed, soleil figures as both a design and a jewelry-making technique in my Fall/Winter Collection.  By overlaying intricately carved white or milky quartz on deep-colored gemstones like malachite and pyrite, I've created a unique reflection and depth that looks different in every light.  

Soleil ring in milky quartz over mother of pearl

I love the poems written by 14th century Sufi poet Hafiz, for whom the sun was such a powerful symbol.  Hafiz wrote with whimsy and optimism, and as reviewer Brian Bruya says, "if it is true that a poet is someone who can pour light into a cup, reading Hafiz is like gulping down the sun."  To me, these words of Hafiz are truly like gulping down the sun!

Even after all this time

the sun never says to the earth,

"You owe me".

Look what happens with 

a love like that,

it lights the Whole Sky.

 - From "The Gift" by Hafiz, as translated beautifully by Daniel Landinsky

Feel beautiful!

Elizabeth

WHAT FALL 2013 MEANS TO US!

Announcing our newest collection!  And there's so much to say about it!

As the daughter of an Interior Designer, I've grown up steeped in - surrounded by - absorbing the inspiration and history that's informed the modern aesthetic.  Art Deco design, with its clean lines and structure, and utter accessibility, has deeply influenced my Fall/Winter Collection.   

I think of the great monuments of the Art Deco era.  The Empire State Building (completed in 1931) and the Chrysler Air Flow Sedan (first off the assembly line in 1934), both quintessential icons of the style.  And my favorite, the astrologically ornamented ceiling of New York's Grand Central Station is the perfect marriage of Art Deco symmetry and the mystery of the stars.   

My Fall/Winter Collection is about shape and color.  Deep color shades, that speak to the crushed velvet brocade and twinkling crystal we saw and loved in Baz Luhrman's Great Gatsby.   

I am especially excited about the pieces in Fall/Winter that reflect the accessibility that defined Art Deco.  Check out my entire Collection (in our features section, To You From Elizabeth), and take special note of the ways you can wear Elizabeth Showers at a price that inspires you! 

Audrey in lab-created blue sapphire, $435//Deco in white quartz, $295//Ball Stack rings with white sapphire, $195

Feel Beautiful!

Elizabeth

OUR OWN AUDREY

A jewelry designer's greatest achievement comes in creating a piece that lives long, stays fresh and reflects the beauty of every single person who wears it.  As we bring out a new collection, I always smile that my AUDREY still has such a place of honor.  In a different stone, with a different hue, our Audrey is timeless.  

While I didn't title Audrey for the true Icon who shares her name, I am struck by how alike they are.  

You think Audrey Hepburn and hear tinkling chandeliers -- "Breakfast at Tiffany's", "Roman Holiday".  To me though, there's the simple optimism that was Hepburn's aura.  Beauty, to Audrey Hepburn, is kindness.  Her care for those in dire straits, struggling in war torn nations -- it never tarnished her belief that the most important thing in life is, simply, to be happy.  As she said, "it's all that matters."  

This week, the AUDREY earring is being featured on my great friend Kim Schlegel Whitman's blog.  Kim, much like Audrey Hepburn, has such timeless style, and I am excited to see how she styles our iconic earring throughout the week.  Turquoise with grey, delicious for Fall -- check out Kim's post here and see how she brings our White Quartz over Turquoise Audrey to life.

While life for me, is lived largely in the present, I am drawn to those Icons who've shaped the past and are still alive in spirit today.  Audrey Hepburn speaks to me, and I love that we are able to honor her loveliness with our own Iconic piece.  Here's our AUDREY.  

"The best thing to hold onto in life is each other."

- Audrey Hepburn

Feel Beautiful!

Elizabeth

Audrey earrings in Mother of Pearl set in 18kt yellow gold, check it out here. 

Audrey earrings in faceted white quartz over turquoise set in rhodiumed sterling silver, check it out here.

Audrey earrings in white quartz over abalone set in rhodiumed sterling silver, check it out here.

BEST OF....

Isn't it cool how the media these days has become so collaborative?  Who doesn't LOVE a curated list of what's fun, what's delicious, and the year's most fabulous visits and venues?  D Magazine, here in Dallas, has truly embraced the "Best Of", helping to put our city on the map.  We are thrilled that Elizabeth Showers was chosen as the Editor's Choice Best Jewelry Designer of Big D this year, and alongside so many other bests of Dallas.

In the spirit of CONGRATULATIONS, I thought we'd give a shout out to some of our very favorites of this year's Best of Big D.  (And if you aren't a Dallasite yourself, we know you will travel through the Big D, for business or pleasure.  Keep these handy in your travel file.)

We too LOVE these eating spots:

Best Gourmet

Eatzi's!  I'm a lunchtime regular...so easy with it near my office.  Sushi, sandwiches, and incredible prepared dinners.  Love their sign as you walk out:  See you Tomorrow!  A combination of "thanks for coming" and "yep, we know you don't cook!"

Best Vegetarian

I adore Cosmic Cafe.  Great food (and homemade Chai)  It's such a calming, peaceful hideaway, right in the heart of the busy Oak Lawn area.

Best Burger

I'm picky, and Twisted Root is a great burger!

Best Chinese

Royal China is not just my favorite Chinese in Dallas, it's one of my favorite restaurants.  I've traveled to Hong Kong and China 5 times, and Royal China nails it.  My girlfriends took me there tonight to celebrate my 42nd birthday, and once again, yuuuummmmmy!

Best Ice Cream

Paciugo's Straciatella - basically, a high quality chocolate chip - is delicious.

And watering holes:

Best Coffee

I'm dating a coffee aficionado, which has me very often switching from my staple green tea over to the dark stuff.  Tommy is always looking for a better Americano, and we are very excited to try Cultivar Coffee. 

Best Hotel Bar

I'm not a bar-goer, but there's a special place in my heart for the Library Bar at the Warwick Hotel.  I was a cocktail waitress there as I was starting my business, at age 24.  I wasn't too great at it, but kinda had fun doing it!  

Best Bar with Games

Barcadia is so much fun.  Lots of vintage video games with my favorite being Ms. Pac-Man.  Remember her?

And when you visit Dallas, you must shop these favorites:

Best Designer Label

Forty Five Ten of course!  We love their team, and Brian Bolke has a great eye.  Our  Monkey Tales Collection lives exclusively at Forty Five Ten.

Best Jewelry Store

Ylang 23 is an amazing store.  The Teichmans are super smart and have designed an incredible website featuring a truly creative array of jewelry designers.  I also love Reader's Pick Nine-Eighteen.  We're neighbors in our Turtle Creek offices, and co-owner Darin Kunz has been a friend for many years (since our first jobs together working as sales associates at Crate & Barrel).

Best Fine Jewelry Designer

Carter Malouf is the Reader's Pick...I adore Carter.

We love sharing trade secrets with one another, and his fun wife Jill's law firm is in my building.

Best Shop for Outdoor Furniture and Accessories

Big Mango Trading Company is, indeed, a "wonderland".  I admire Lori and Jaime Smith's work and love that their inspiration never rests...they take frequent trips to Indonesia.  

I am fascinated and would love to tag along soon!

Best Custom Clothier for Women

Nha Khanh is an incredible ready-to-wear collection!  I sat on a panel of 3 designers for the FGI (Fashion Group International) Career Fair recently, and Khanh Nguyen was on the panel with me.  I was moved by her smarts, her humility and sheer talent.  I may ask her to design a dress for me, one day soon.

Best Consignment Women's Clothing

I have been consigning my clothes with Clotheshorse Anonymous for years.  I love thinking about what glamorous events some of my favorite ex-outfits might attend without me.

And for some CULTURE, high brow or otherwise:

Best Museum

We are so lucky in Dallas.  The Dallas Museum of Art is incredible...so easy to drop in for a smaller exhibit (changing constantly) or stay a full afternoon for meditation or to get inspiration.  But the new Perot Museum of Nature and Sciences is an experience, for all ages. These two museums alone are reason to bring you to Dallas.

Best Movie Theater
Angelika Film Center gives me a feeling of being in New York.  I could choose almost any film they feature, no matter the genre, and like it.

And these?  Dallas' cultural ICONS:

Best TV News Team:  WFAA CHANNEL 8!  

Ronda Gibbons White has been with WFAA since her early 20s and is one of my very very bestest of the best friends, and Best of Big D Broadcaster Gloria Campos is a faithful supporter of the Elisa Project, my beloved favorite non-profit for support from and awareness of eating disorders.

Best Athlete:  DIRK NOWITZKI!  I have always had a little crush on him.  There is something so inspiring and attractive about his spirit.

Best Annual Festival:  STATE FAIR OF TEXAS...a walk down memory lane for me.  I've been going every September or October since I was a little girl.  I will always eat a Fletcher's corny dog with LOTS of mustard, a Diet Dr. Pepper, and ride the bumper cars and ferris wheel.  It's one of my favorite things to do every year. 

I love Dallas.  It is vibrant and dynamic, it's changing every time I turn around.  (I even wrote an entire post on how my city inspires me, read it here.)  D Magazine captures the heart and soul of that vibrancy, every month on the newstands, and more (on the big screen and small, with incredible sponsorships and crazy fun events.  And online, check it out here.) 

We love you D Mag--keep up your amazing work!

Feel Beautiful!

Elizabeth

For the entire list of Best of Big D: Shopping 2013, click here.   

THE LYRIC COLLECTION SINGS!

Last week, early August in Aspen...it's the long awaited unveiling of the Lyric Collection, my design collaboration with the amazing Kelly O'Donovan, artist and co-owner of the Elliott Yeary Gallery in Aspen.  (Read more about our work together here in a post from May 1st.) The unveiling coincided with ArtCrush, the annual gala for the Aspen Art Museum.  Unimaginable energy is in the air, so much creativity and stunning natural beauty! 

Aspen trees in late summer

Teresita Fernández's "Blind Land (Green Mirror)," part of a current exhibit at the Aspen Art Museum 

I pinch myself.  Again I am reminded how my work is a catalyst for such extraordinary experiences.  In this case, it's the opportunity to create something all new, even a bit out of the box.

Our feature in the current issue of Aspen Magazine

The Lyric Collection is truly a meeting of two aesthetics.  You'll recognize me in the exotic stones and unique settings.  What Kelly brings to the Collection is an artist's eye.  In her work, words come to life to tell the kind of story that breaks your heart and makes you laugh, all for its honesty.  It was this raw courage that captured my imagination when I saw Kelly's canvases earlier this year.

Kelly and I at the Gallery in front of her painting, entitled Amazed

Being in Aspen to unveil the Lyric Collection gave me a chance to learn more about the inspiration behind Kelly's work, about her vision and her life.

Let me introduce you to Kelly.

Elizabeth:  Kelly, Amazed is truly an amazing work of art.  In the painting, you even talk about atoms and protons.  Will you say more?

Kelly:  I work from the perspective that we are all on the deepest level, interconnected, we're all one.  The painting has a section called ‘Science Lesson’- it is a simple explanation about all things in the physical world being made up of the same thing down to particles. While we don’t know what particles are made of, we do know each one is connected to every other one in the Universe. We all share something. This fact should make us all feel a bit less lonely and more compassionate and altruistic toward each other.

Elizabeth:  We used Deep Blue Sea in the design of our Lyric Collection earrings.  These words also appear in Amazed.

Kelly:  The Deep Blue Sea section of the painting that those earrings are based on is about that big feeling of in-loveness we all have at least once in our lives. When we are little, maybe it is about our mother or father or a sibling. When we grow up it can be about a significant other and even our child. It’s about loving someone else so much, that marvelous wanting to be in the presence of another. The wish to have them all to yourself, for just a moment but hopefully longer. The dream of getting on a boat and just floating together and letting ‘the wind and the waves’ carry you away.

A pair of earrings from the Lyric Collection

Elizabeth: And the hidden key under a rock by the door?  That too is in Amazed.

Kelly:  Right!  When you are close to someone, you know where that key is--there is a familiarity that's comforting. For me, that part in particular is about my Mom. She passed away last year. All of my life, she always left a key under a rock by her front and back doors. All who she loved knew where it was and were invited to come inside her warm and cozy home. That line also rings true in a different way for someone we are in a loving relationship with. Sometimes we close ourselves off, intentionally or not, but those that love us always know there is a key and they will be ‘let in’, so to speak.

Elizabeth:  I love your honesty--I definitely share these feelings about life and love and our interconnectedness.  So, is your work all autobiographical?

Kelly:   This painting is very autobiographical in that it is a written and painted expression of my thoughts and feelings about life, relationship, love and more. The fun is observing people ‘reading’ the work and identifying so completely with so much of it. Further proving our interconnectedness. A primo example of that is here in Amazed (she points to her painting and reads): "There might be some tendencies that lean toward the dramatic.” 

OK, I think she may be referring to herself with those words, but Kelly is calm and cool, and such a centered person.  With that very fun tendency that "leans toward the dramatic!" Introducing Kelly O'Donovan, and the Lyric Collection!

"Amazed" by Kelly O'Donovan and the back side of the Lyric Collection Pendant

Feel beautiful,

Elizabeth 

EXPRESSION OF GRATITUDE

Recently, we received a handwritten note from one of our customers, a thank you note.  This one, though, was not just a "high five" for providing her with a jewel she'd coveted.  Far more poignantly, this note filled us in on the details of a story that touches us deeply.  

Some time ago, this customer purchased a pair of my earrings for her wedding.  She wore them for many years and loved them, but also considered them gifts she held in safe keeping, for a future daughter or daughter-in-law to wear in her own wedding festivities, sometime off in the future.  That was the plan, until they were stolen in a home invasion.  

The beauty of artisanal jewelry design is our agility.  It was in that spirit, and in hopes that we could pick up the pieces of the story, that we were able to have a pair of her earrings specially made, even despite their being part of a collection in the archives.  All in a day's work?  Maybe.  Until we received this sweet note of thanks and learned that these weren't just earrings.  Having them back after such a trying time, our customer wrote, "makes her feel more herself".  

The earrings that made such a difference: White Quartz set in Rhodium over Sterling Silver.

That's the Feel Beautiful message, in real life!

We put beautiful jewels out into the world, and that's our way of connecting with you.  But it occurs to us (thanks to this amazing expression of gratitude), that we may owe you a little bit more.  So:

THANK YOU!

For Wearing the Jewels we Invest with So Much Love

For Coming When We Call, for Sharing our Occasions

and

For Voting!

Thank you!

Feel beautiful!

Elizabeth

“In the end, though, maybe we must all give up trying to pay back the people in this world who sustain our lives. In the end, maybe it's wiser to surrender before the miraculous scope of human generosity and to just keep saying thank you, forever and sincerely, for as long as we have voices.” 

― Elizabeth Gilbert

Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia

  

UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL

In the crush of time and the buzz of business, it's always easy to opt for what's easy.  That path of least resistance seems to be an increasingly popular route.  

Which is why, when so many of my favorite friends and dearest customers ask if they can  drop by my showroom, I know it's time to stop, and listen.  What is more empowering than being close to my customers?  To hear your stories and to know what you think is beautiful?

Today and tomorrow, my team and I are opening our doors for a spontaneous Sample Sale.  Looking back at photos of past events, I'm struck by how happy everyone looks, how much fun we have together! 

Won't you come see us? 

If you're not local or are just too busy, give us a call.  We are all acting as Elizabeth Showers Personal Shoppers.  Why should you miss out if you don't live in Dallas! 

Check out some of our friends and family, past and present!

I learn as much about my jewelry from you as I do from the making of it!

Here's one of the Elizabeth Showers' tribe, Karen, 8 months pregnant, with my friend Shelly, also pregnant - I think there were 4 pregnant women at the trunk show that day!

And I get to hold the babies, too!  (Meg and her son Pope)

One of our favorite mother-daughter teams (Kim and Myrna - and Kim just recently had a little baby girl)

It's fun to look back and see past designs.  Might they come back, in another guise?

One year, we offered gorgeous jewel-toned macaroons.   

There's always more, please ask! 

Love taking trunk shows on the road.

Friends from far and near, here are the ladies from Astley-Clarke in London.

I love telling my stories too!

I'm struck by Susan Sontag's words in this quote - makes me realize that if we don't reach out and grab the opportunity to connect and share with each other, the time will pass us by.  So...

"Do stuff. Be curious. Not waiting for inspiration's shove or society's kiss on your forehead. Pay attention. It's all about paying attention. Attention is vitality. It connects you with others. It makes you eager. Stay eager.”
- Susan Sontag

Feel beautiful!
Elizabeth

our sample sale is going on now!  come join us for treats and sweets at our Dallas Showroom
3131 Turtle Creek Blvd., Suite 1118
214-879-9944 x108 & x110