Diamonds are Forever.....

.......….especially when they’re set in stone! Love this ring by Christchurch jeweller, Elfi Spiewack. A diamond set into a greywacke pebble.

Design Spot 6

Sandi Reefman, Napier. June 2008. Ajr

Meet Sandi Reefman, the Napier creator of the fabulous and rapidly-expanding Esther Diamond Collection – a quirky, colourful range of homeware products that incorporates the designs and artwork of several leading New Zealand artists including Dick Frizzell, Para Matchitt, Fane Flaws, Martin Poppelwell and Ben Pearce. I LOVE the idea of drying my dishes on a tea-towel emblazoned with a Dick Frizzell design or a witty work by Martin Poppelwell; or, in a loose moment, wiping dribbled food from my chin with a table napkin that really looks as though it ought to be framed. It’s all about getting contemporary art out to a much wider audience says Sandi, and I’m all for that. I think it’s a brilliant concept that deserves all the support it is currently getting. See here for more of this gorgeous range. www.estherdiamond.com www.eon.co.nz

Design Spot 5

Akaroa-based New Zealand jeweller, Peter McKay likens his Metaphysical Heart brooches to miniature soap operas – “I like to set up little plays and tensions, little scenes where human dramas play out.” He considers jewellery “a vehicle for storytelling” and whatever his ‘frame’ – heart, arch, dog tag, his little cast of recurring characters – girl, crow, boat, crucifix, Brancusi column – combine to create captivating miniature silver ‘worlds.’ Very much inspired by art and the Surrealist movement, he’s never “bought into that whole South Pacifica stone, bone, shell thing.” Instead, he suggested with a wry grin when I interviewed him last week, “we in the south grit our teeth and look toward the southerly, leaving those in the Auckland to stare toward the heat of the tropics.”

Design Spot 4

The Ginkgo is my favourite tree. I love its exquisite leaves - leaves like no others. Each seems undecided: one divided in two, or two joined as one? Honey-gold fans in autumn, they cling to the tree until late in the season and then, inexplicably, all can fall rapidly within a few hours, or in a single day, layering into a thick yellow carpet below. The ginkgo features in many of my short stories. Japanese-born Christchurch jeweller, Koji Miyazaki is also rather enamoured of the ginkgo. It’s one of the traditional Asian plants that inspire many of his gold and silver jewellery pieces. I visited him at his Form Gallery (www.form.co.nz) two days ago, and fell in love with his delicately wrought ginkgo leaves – perfect treasures, gold and silver, some clinging, like leaves on a tree, to strands of traditional pearls. A happy marriage.

Design Spot 3

It's going to be a week of inspiration for me as I prepare a magazine feature on three contemporary Christchurch jewellers. German-born Elfi Spiewack is the first. I walked into her inner city studio today and I didn't want to leave - all the things I love - seed pods, pebbles, colourful noticeboards filled with inspirations, books, gorgeous jewellery displays, shells, tools - all the things Elfie draws onto create the exquisite and diverse pieces of contemporary jewellery that she exhibits throughout New Zealand, Australia, Germany, USA and the Netherlands. Very much inspired by nature, some of her earlier series made from seed pods, gum nuts, magnolia stamens, gold and silver struck a real chord with me. I especially loved the lotus pod encased in sterling silver to form a brooch, complete with two natural seeds and one gold-plated.

Design Spot 2

This is what you call keeping it all in the family - jewellery by Auckland-based son, Grant Rewi. Says Grant: "The style of my jewellery is more determined by the methods I use to produce it - I am not really a jeweller and having never undertaken any training as a jeweller, I probably approach the construction and manufacturing side of things differently to most jewellers. I don't own many jewellery-making tools; the majority of my work is produced in an engineering workshop. I think a lot of my stuff reflects that." Grant, who has a Bachelor of Design from Auckland's Unitec Institute of Technology, has exhibited work at Eon Design Centre, Unitec and Studio 14 Gallery, all in Auckland and at the Melbourne store of leading New Zealand fashion label, Zambesi. He also designs furniture and works fulltime at Auckland Museum.

Design Spot 1

When my makeshift wardrobe railing collapsed this morning dropping all my clothes in a muddle on the floor, I thought of multi-award winning Christchurch designer, Ingrid Geldof and how appalled she would be by my inattention to important things like function and design. I have come to appreciate that we should all - as much as budget allows - utilise quality design consultants to avoid missing out on valuable knowledge and to get the very best from our homes without compromise. Ingrid's mammoth haul of over 30 New Zealand design awards for kitchen, bathroom, laundry and joinery design makes her an obvious choice when it comes to solving design dilemmas and general household inefficiencies like mine. The thing I particularly like about her approach to function is that she doesn't compromise on aesthetics. Her designs pay particular attention to colour, texture, form and pattern in a way that puts her work in a class above most. Every finish, every surface is part of a well considered whole so that you not only get function, you also get beauty. I can live without the very best in function but I cannot live without beauty. http://www.igd.co.nz/