Wishful Pondering! Inside Francesca Villa’s Newest Assortment – JCK

An simple spotlight of my summer season: getting some built-in bookshelves put in in my residence. This comfortable event prompted me to go searching in my mom’s attic to rescue some books from my childhood within the hopes that my daughter could take pleasure in them someday (now that she is a reader). One field held these hardcover treasures (Little Girls! Heidi! Anne of Inexperienced Gables!).

One other mouse-gnawed cardboard field held storybooks, together with a replica of Rudyard Kipling’s Simply So Tales. This version was first printed by Doubleday in 1912, and the pictures are copyrighted to 1953. I remembered the tales properly, together with “How the Leopard Acquired His Spots” and How the Camel Acquired His Hump.”

Just So Stories — *I had an equivalent version of the Kipling basic, written in 1902. (Picture by way of Etsy)*

Later, I requested my mom to learn “The Elephant’s Baby” to my daughter as I listened. I have to say, I used to be troubled by the references to the little man being crushed repeatedly by his household and fellow jungle inhabitants. And naturally, all through the ebook, there are the ever present undertones of British colonialism (and equally icky issues with reference to Kipling himself) which might be simply so…properly, you realize.

However nonetheless this ebook, with its tattered ruby-red cowl and enchanting illustrations of leopards and zebras and giraffes, stays a extremely evocative artifact from my childhood. The photographs are imprinted in my thoughts as vividly because the reminiscence of being learn to on the marginally scratchy yellow carpet that adorned my bed room, and of the coordinating curtains (I’m simply remembering the sample now: jungle animal–themed, in tangerine and people oh-so-Nineteen Seventies shades of harvest gold and mustard).

Was it only a coincidence that the Italian jewellery designer Francesca Villa occur to drop pictures of her newest assortment in my inbox, most of which incorporate creatures that appear plucked from the pages of Kipling (or Aesop or Jean de la Fontaine)?

Francesca Villa Beach time earrings — *Seashore Time earrings in 18k yellow gold with diamonds, emeralds, enamel, and rock crystal intaglio backed with mother-of-pearl, $10,560*

Titled Make a Want, it’s the latest “chapter” of Villa’s Shut Encounters assortment, by which she’s dreamed up a world of serendipitous conferences between creatures from completely different environments—and continents—to create new experiences collectively.

A leopard needs to make mates and accompanies a seahorse to a celebration on the seashore. A zebra is celebrating its birthday whereas a little bit crab and cockatoo seem to assist mark the event.

Francesca Villa Make A Wish Animals — From high: Purchasing Time ring in 18k gold with diamonds, enamel, and rock crystal intaglio backed with Tahitian mother-of-pearl, $8,450; One thing Crimson ring in 18k yellow gold with diamonds, emeralds, enamel, and rock crystal intaglio backed with mother-of-pearl, $7,920; Seashore Social gathering ring in 18k yellow gold with diamonds, emeralds, enamel, and rock crystal intaglio backed with Tahitian mother-of-pearl, $8,450

Francesca Villa Make a Wish Earrings — Clockwise from high left: Hiya My Darling earrings in 18k yellow gold with diamonds, peridot, enamel, and rock crystal intaglio backed with mother-of-pearl, $9,240; Completely satisfied Birthday Earrings in 18k yellow gold with diamonds, pink sapphires, enamel, and rock crystal intaglio backed with mother-of-pearl, $14,520; Make a Want earrings in 18k yellow gold with diamonds, pink tourmaline, emeralds, tsavorite, enamel, and rock crystal intaglio backed with mother-of-pearl, $11,350; Purchasing Time earrings in 18k yellow gold with diamonds, citrine, enamel, and rock crystal intaglio backed with mother-of-pearl, $10,560

The crystals for Make a Want, as in earlier Villa collections, had been made in collaboration with two feminine grasp jewelers in Germany who specialize within the Previous World strategy of carving and hand-painting rock crystal. Villa has been sourcing and that includes vintage Essex crystals (well-liked within the Victorian period—and mentioned a bit right here) in her jewellery, and now she works with variations that deliver the pictures of her personal creativeness to life.

And if I get to make a want? It’s for Villa to make extra of those little wonders instantly!

Prime: Make a Want ring in 18k yellow gold, with diamonds, rubies, and rock crystal intaglio backed with mother-of-pearl, $7,920

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