Spark To Sparkle: The Portal Collection Inspiration

One of my most asked questions is "Where do you get your ideas from?" 

Here's a look at the ideas and inspiration that led to my latest Portal Collection.

Portals: It's all about the idea of crossing into something new.

When I first arrived in London, a whole new city spread out before me. I wandered around quite a bit and let my surroundings speak to me. I kept looking for doors, portals, points of entry, gateways, anything that called me to explore the next space ahead. It made sense as the best way to absorb a city that felt (and still feels) at times, very big and overwhelming.

When it came to choosing where to go, sometimes it was an actual doorway. Sometimes it was an archway, a vignette of an opening, a swirling graphic sign, or a band of color. There were lots of occasions where something I saw told me not to go in that particular direction. I went with my instincts.

I kept thinking about types of portals that we experience everyday when we cross from one place to the next. Most of the time, we do it unnoticed and unaware.

A portal is an opening to another world. It's about possibility.

I wanted to design something that felt portal-like, something fluid, something that flowed. 

I started a London Portal Photos folder and continuously added to it, like a digital inspiration holder, and I started thinking about how I could translate this concept into jewelry that could be worn.

I went through and discarded many design ideas before I arrived at the pieces that make up the Portal Collection. I played around first with very angular, hard-edged pieces, things that looked like door frames and other pieces that looked like steps.

I also created a Pinterest board of images that I found online that were associated with the word portal. It was interesting to compare some of the otherworldly, pristine, generated imagery with my photo examples from real-life London. I added to both collections of ideas over more than a year.

I used my 3D modeling tools to explore form, movement, and connection.

The flowing, continuous shape that makes up the Portal earrings, pendant, and ring appears to wrap around itself, creating the illusion of an opening suspended in space. 

I thought that the 3D nature of the design would create a play of light, shadow, and negative space on the wearer. A minimalist aesthetic, yet a conversation piece, this was my goal.

The outcome is conceptual, rather than direct.

Often times my jewelry designs are a literal translation of form and shape. In this case, I arrived at a design through a more conceptual idea. The final pieces feel like a portal, but not one shape that I directly encountered anywhere. It's more that they encompass the idea of a space, a portal from one place to another.

My wish is that you, as the potential wearer of these designs, feels both the beauty of the organic form, but also the idea of movement through space. It's like a symbol of change from one place to the next.