temple st clair

The relationship between fashion and jewelry design is one that works in two ways, jewelry can often inspire fashion design and haute couture also provides inspiration for jewelry designers. Jewelry designer Temple St. Clair tells us about the fashion designs that have influenced her work:

Designer Influence – Where does inspiration come from?

The source of inspiration is personal and particular to the individual. I have made the act of being inspired part of my life. I am constantly open to ideas and things or concepts that catch my attention. I am not merely in the business of making jewelry just to make a ring, bracelet, or necklace. I have to be amused, interested, caught in an imaginary world that I can then translate in to a jewel.

I enjoy the work of other designers particularly those that seem to create their own themes in worlds of color, pattern and design, those that create a journey in their work that tells a story.

I love fashion. A few of my favorites captivate me with their creativity and sometimes, outrageousness. Perennial favorites are Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garcons, Jean-Paul Gaultier, and Alexander McQueen who we have recently so tragically lost. I also love Valentino for his romance and undying attention to detail. Each one of these designers creates for a new world. They create treasures that become collectible "works" that can be worn for decades.

Each of these designers has a strong point of view. At Comme des Garcons, Rei Kawakubo artfully deconstructs the classic idea of clothing to create something whimsical and new. I have collected pieces from Comme des Garcons for years. I pull them out time and again and they still feel fresh and fun to wear.

Jean-Paul Gaultier plays with iconography and big themes. One of my favorites from years ago was his Tibetan collection. He created a Parisian chic crossed with the garb of Tibetan monks from the high Himalayas. It was a rich collection whose imagery has stayed with me.

The extremely talented, Alexander McQueen, had only shown us the tip of the iceberg of his creativity. His shows are pure theater yet many of his pieces are timelessly classic. He was truly a young master. I will treasure my pieces by him.

Where do you get your inspiration? Jewelry designer Temple St. Clair tells us about the artists that have influenced her work.

I find inspiration in many different art forms and from many eras – from ancient to modern. I recently accompanied my ten year-old son to the Metropolitan Museum of Art here in New York City. He was studying Mesopotamia and the Assyrians and Babylonians. His homework was to find and sketch particular artifacts. My favorite kind of project! We sketched together, and though familiar with this period, I never cease to be amazed at the graphic detail of the sculpture and stone carvings. If one of these pieces was placed in a Picasso museum, it could easily be mistaken for one of the modern master's works. In ancient art, the patterns and repeated motifs become the aesthetic vocabulary not only for design but also for symbolic purposes; I find this absolutely fascinating.

Among my favorite contemporary artists are Richard Diebenkorn and Mark Rothko. Both were masters of color. Rothko's colors emanate beyond the surface of his canvases. I believe this is why many museums fill entire spaces with Rothkos. The Tate Modern in London has one of my favorite "Rothko rooms." The color of a beautifully cut gemstone has a life of its own in a similar way. I select gems for individual color, but also for how their colors work together. There are tourmalines and aquamarines that I never tire looking at. For me, that's the fascination of color whether in a natural gemstone or in a painting. In Richard Diebenkorn's "Ocean Park" series, he relies heavily on color for his composition with very little use of actual line. I think about this when I am putting stone layouts together. The colors of the stones as they relate create the design of the piece; the metal work merely supplies the structure.

It is not that one artist or one art form has influenced my work directly. It is more about creating a lifestyle that celebrates an awareness of beauty in art and nature. With my work, I am lucky in that I have been able to cultivate a reason to read and study and explore. I collect ideas, thoughts and images through literature, music, performance, through visits to museums and travel. I keep a sketch or a postcard or a book on things that I particularly love and that move me. It all goes in to my work and my daily life.

Recently jewelry designer, and nominee for a Luxist Reader's Choice Award in the Best Jewelry Line category, Temple St. Clair interviewed another great creative mind, violinist Joshua Bell. Bell, who began playing at age five, has played with most of the world's great orchestras and conductors in his long career. His extensive discography includes Vivaldi: The Four Seasons which was released in 2008 and At Home With Friends, his latest album, inspired by his love of hosting informal concerts at his home. The two artists talked about ideas, art, charity and finding balance in life.

Joshua Bell: Great to meet you! Your work has a bit of a world-wide influence, considering your studio started in Italy and was eventually moved to New York. Your blog also mentioned several locations. Have your travels influenced your design at all?

Temple St. Clair: Yes. In fact, travel is essential to my work. I do spend a lot of time in my studio pouring over books but, for me, traveling is key to refreshing the mind. I never travel without a sketchbook for drawings and notes. I sketch architectural details as well things I see in nature. Also street fashion differs from culture to culture so I love people watching. I have shelves and shelves of my sketchbooks; they are as much travel logs as anything else. I constantly refer back to them for ideas that I save for new collections.

You often tour throughout Europe. Does visiting such far-away locales, to areas where much of the music you're known for playing was originally performed, change the way you view the music you're playing?

J: I don't know that it changes the way I view the music, but it can certainly enrich the experience.

I've played in centuries-old churches and halls that have hosted the world's most celebrated artists, many of whom are my heroes. Being on the same stage where so many great talents have performed is inspiring. While the walls can't literally talk, they do speak to you in a sense that is very special.

Of course you can get your woman a practical gift like a computer case or an espresso maker. But if you really want to show your love, you're going to have to get her a piece of jewelry. So ditch the Circuit City circular and pick up our handy Luxist jewelry gift guide for the holidays. Whether a gem, crafted enamel, or a bracelet with a mission, a piece of jewelry is a guarantee to make your lady happy. Read on to find our top holiday picks, some low-end, some high-end, some classic, some nouveau, something guaranteed to fit any fashion personality.

We're forever mesmerized by Temple St. Clair's new Geocentric Pendant, which was inspired by 1st century astronomer Ptolemy's hypothesis that our humble planet was the center of the universe. The rotating pendant is set in multicolor sapphires.

$22,500 18K Large Tolomeo Pendant

Temple St. Clair has been afflicted with wanderlust her entire life. A southern girl who grew up spending summer vacations in Morocco and Bavaria, went to an International Swiss boarding school for high school, and received a masters in Italian literature in Florence, St. Clair has been traveling her whole life. Her vast knowledge of art and mythology coupled with her travels to the ends of the world to find rare gems makes her process and collection entirely unique.

We spoke with St. Clair, who still retains her charming Southern accent, about the inspiration for her stunning and elegant jewelry collection. The Temple St. Clair line is not for every woman. It's for a woman who doesn't follow the rules, in fashion or in life. It's for a woman with an endless search for knowledge and adventure, a woman with an innate sense of class and elegance, a woman a lot like Temple St. Clair herself.

When did you know you wanted to be a jewelry designer?

It wasn't a clear-cut decision. It was something that sort of evolved in my life. I lived in Italy for about twelve years. I started living there after I'd been living in Italy in the 80s and I started having a few pieces made for myself. My background is in Italian Renaissance literature, Italian art history, and I was inspired by the things I was studying that were around me in Florence. My goal was to make a few things for me and then other people started seeing them and friends and family asking me to make things for them. And it grew from there, and supported me continuing to live in Italy and travel and study. It wasn't an exact moment that I decided. Life decided that for me.

What were your early influences?

I had my masters in Italian Renaissance literature so I was reading Dante and Boccaccio, so I was spending a lot of time in the museums there. So early on I was looking at everything around me in Florence. I would say early inspiration was certainly Mediterranean. I was traveling a lot in Turkey and North Africa and of course all around Italy, so definitely the early influences came from there.

Who is your ideal customer?

I think my ideal customer, it's not like, I can describe to you what kind of woman is attracted to my collection. My customer has certain characteristics, typically, and they usually are very confidant women, very secure in their own individual styles. They don't let fashion dictate to them. They like to put their own mark on things, and put things together for themselves. And my collection lends to that. And you know, that's how I feel about fashion and life in general. You know I prefer to be more of an individual and I guess that translates through my jewelry and attracts that kind of woman.

Your collections feature a lot of really unusual stones. How do you source materials and pick different stones?

I've become known for my use of really beautiful and unusual color and fine gemstones. I do use a lot of different colors of sapphires. I do use a lot of different aquamarine and tourmaline and really rare pieces, which really are quite difficult to work with, because sometimes I can only get one stone of a certain kind. So that very much differentiates what I do from a usually jewelry manufacturer that might be making everything in colored quartz for example, where you can get all you want.

So the sources for these materials are widely distributed around the world. I work with cutters in Germany. I work with Indians. I work with Australians. I have people bringing stuff out of Afghanistan and Pakistan, which is particularly difficult these days, as you could imagine. I work with really beautiful tourmaline coming out of Mozambique, minerals coming out of Madagascar, just really, really interesting unusual material. One thing I always say is, it certainly doesn't make it easy when you're working on some new pieces, just sourcing materials is very, very difficult, but that's the way I like it.

Is that what sets you wide apart from other lines?

I think so in many ways, because otherwise it's just too difficult. It's not a practical business model, let's say. But I think I come to things from a more artistic perspective, and a more historical perspective where I sort of see myself in the history of jewelry. If you look back at important jewelry, things weren't produced in multiple, multiple pieces. You have one special piece, pieces like Elizabeth Taylor has collected, that were owned by some great European monarch who collected centuries before. Those pieces weren't made in the dozens. So I think a little bit, I work in that way, that I'm really creating these treasures to be passed down. A lot of people refer to them as modern classics. I like that. These are pieces that will stand the test of time.

What's your work process like once you have an idea to the time that it's actually being created?

I work on a fashion schedule. I present two collections a year, a spring and a fall collection. At the same time, as I find interesting stones, they'll be other pieces that I'll add in during the year. Typical these days I'll be working on a seasoned collection, nine to twelve months ahead of time. That doesn't necessarily mean that's how long it takes a design to happen. I am constantly working on different designs. And if a scene comes along that strikes me, I'll go in deeper on a particular design.

I have a few different collections that are somewhat thematic. One that's celestially inspired, that takes into account some old drawings of constellations and have some astrological motifs, old almost pagan motifs from studies of astronomy and astrology. I love myths and stories and legends, so I'll go in deep and not only read the stories, but look at old drawings and things.

I find inspiration, just out of my imagination, and you know references already existing in the world. So it depends. Some times something hits you and it's very fast, and other times it's something you're sort of working on over a period of time. So, it works both ways. And sometimes it's just I'll get a beautiful stone and everything will come from that stone. I'll just be motivated to set it a certain way.

Is there one piece in your collection that you think every woman should have?

In my collection, typically the most signature, iconic piece is my rock crystal amulet. And that tends to be the piece that, if someone is just getting to know my collection, that's the piece that they tend to be drawn to. That's the piece that I encourage as a starting collectible because it is so versatile. It can go with anything, and at the same time, with the rock crystal amulet, I add several new ones with each new collection. So there are many to choose from. So it goes back to that idea of the customer wanting her own personal individual item, and she can find that with her choice of the individual rock crystal amulets.

To read more about how Temple St. Clair's worldly life influences her gorgeous designs, check out her expansive book Alchemy: A Passion For Jewels. It's a must-have addition to any art book collection. Click through the gallery to view more amazing pieces.

One of my favorite jewelers, the always elegant Temple St. Clair has, for years, had a series of medallion-like pendants embellished with her three signature granulated beads. Now she's turned her style into a charity effort. The Temple St. Clair's Special Edition Harvest Pendant benefits Services and Food for the Homeless, a non profit organization providing food and assistance to the homeless in New York City. The 18K pendant is available in white or yellow gold and sells for $550. Temple St. Clair's book, Alchemy - A Passion for Jewels, is included with every purchase of this pendant.

There's just something about the zodiac that makes it a timeless design option. Despite the often cheesy reputation that astrology has, high-end options for displaying one's sign abound. The latest comes from one of my favorite jewelry designers, the always elegant Temple St. Clair. Her Fall Zodiac collection includes 18K gold pendants with a satin finish and diamond granulation on the back. All twelve signs are represented. Shown here is the Leo pendant which sells for $950.