Our blog is based on the short stories we write that inspire our pieces, where we find our inspiration, travel and history, stones and materials, how to projects, and our lives.
The entries, travel photos, and product posts are not in chronological order. We share images as we sort them or as we create new items. Some of the photos and products are from before we started the business, but they still show the inspiration behind pieces we make today.
Much of the information we include with our photos comes from historians, tour guides we encountered, and what we have learned through museums. We do our best to support it with sources such as Wikipedia, credible websites, and books.
The picture below is one we took in Rostock, Germany, of a small church not far from Schwerin Castle. Rostock is along the Baltic Sea, and we visited this city after a brief stop in Warnemünde.Schwerin Castle is now a museum, and it has some of the most impressive, almost modern looking dragon carvings we have seen. Please see my following post about dragons for more information.You can see many gothic quatrefoils while visiting Europe, but we did not start making these earrings until after we returned from this trip.
We also incorporate the quatrefoil into our own cathedral window inspired designs.
According to Wikipedia; "The word quatrefoil means "four leaves", from Latin quattuor, four, plus folium, a leaf) and applies to general four-lobed shapes in various contexts. It is also used as a heraldic charge and possibly it's roots are based on Islamic architecture." (1)
On the left: Brass earrings with the quatrefoil design. Right: Copper pendant with the quatrefoil design.
This picture from the Great Hall in the Edinburgh Castle contains one of the few quatrefoils in the designs throughout the room. It has inspired several new items that we will post in 2015.
The focus of this site was the architecture and the structure of the Edinburgh Castle ( a fortress) rather than artefacts, furniture or elaborate carvings.
Christchurch cathedral in Dublin, Ireland is the oldest of the city's two medieval cathedrals. The cathedral has various medieval patterns, however, since it was heavily restored during the Victorian time it is difficult to determine which designs were original. Whether they are original to the cathedral or not this beautiful quatrefoil faux wall caught our eyes. This site has inspired multiple items that will be included on future posts.
The picture below shows the quatrefoils decorating a wooden chair in Rakvere, Estonia. This fortress was inhabited by the Templars and, later, the Teutonic knights during it's long history.
One last photo of a quatrefoil from Utstein Abbey, located on the island of Mosterøy in Rennesøy municipality in Norway. This is Norway’s best preserved medieval monastery. It was established around 1160 and founded during the reign of King Magnus VI of Norway.
To reach this location, we had to take the highway through the Rennfast undersea tunnel, the world’s longest and deepest subsea road tunnel, for about 30 minutes. It was well worth the drive to see such a beautiful site and to hear a recital of Edvard Grieg’s music, who used and developed Norwegian folk music in his compositions, on the more recently installed organ in the chapel on the monastery grounds.
As many of our customers know, we are fans of classical, opera, flamenco, and other world music. Below the picture of the window is an Edvard Grieg piece to listen to. This video happens to be filmed in the Rock Church in Helsinki, which we have also visited.
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