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In her book, Paula Crevoshay takes the reader on a tour of fabulous minerals, the gems that are crafted from them, and the exceptional and often playful jewels she "paints" with this colorful palette. It is a sensual journey, reminding the reader that the beauty found in Nature is limited only by human imagination.
This unique exhibition paired the artist’s jewels with the exceptional minerals from the museum, thus juxtaposing the wondrous art of Nature with the wonderful creativity of Paula Crevoshay. The Musée de Minéralogie dates back to 1783 and has one of the world's most comprehensive collections, with over 100,000 pieces representing more than 2,900 mineral specimens from around the globe. In her designs, Crevoshay plays not only with color but also with the types of gem cuts—carvings, cabochons, facets—as she thoughtfully assesses how light is transmitted, reflected or refracted in her lively butterflies, fish, flowers and other fanciful creations. “There is no greater inspiration found in art than Mother Nature,” she explains. The minerals and sparkling gemstones featured include kunzite, boulder opal, fire opal, demantoid garnet, sphalerite, sapphire, turquoise, chrysophrase, rutilated quartz, chrysocolla, topaz, rhodochrosite, agate, chalcedony, water opal, tourmaline, spinel, feldspar, diamond, azurite, peridot, apatite, chrysoberyl, emerald and spessartite. The author dedicates the book to “all the inquiring minds who came before, whose curiosity and sense of wonder set the cultural foundations for our own time: the prospectors and miners who first brought these earthly treasures to light, the philosophers and scientist who defined their properties, physical and poetic, and the artisans and craftsmen through the millennia whose applied talents showed us how to produce objects both useful and beautiful…” In the book’s Foreword, Didier Nectoux, curator of the Musée de Minéralogie, writes: “Paula makes the most out of the amazing range of minerals that exist in Nature to bring her jewels to life. She understands how light interacts with gemstones and turns it into magical pieces of jewelry… Illumination is the word to define the way Paula sees gemstones.” Homage to the beauty of the natural world, Illuminations: Earth to Jewel will appeal to connoisseurs and lovers of gemstones, minerals and original fine jewelry. For more on Paula Crevoshay's jewelry art, visit crevoshay.com. |