Holiday Countdown at JPI

Here in the JP studio we love being Santa's elves but today I am feeling like this picture of Peggy Guggenheim...

Today was cold and I was on my Vespa running from the Sacramento store to the Union Square one, ending up at our Jackson Square studio. It was fun to run around with my camera going from neighborhood to neighborhood. I felt really lucky. And appreciated that SF if only 7 square miles.

Everything Is Popping Up Pretty!

In addition to our store in Union Square, we are excited be opening our first pop up store with Martha Davis and Birch on Sacramento Street. The Pop Up Atelier is in the heart of Laurel Heights on Sacramento between Lyon and Presidio. We will be open this Saturday and will stay open up to New Years Eve!!

I was looking to open a store just for December somewhere in the city and Laurel Heights has always been one of my favorite neighborhoods. I find myself there a lot usually drooling around at The Ribbonerie, Sue Fisher King , Susan, March--the list is literally tooooo long for me to keep going. We will in the very best of company and we are all so excited about this new event. I can’t even describe Birch as being a store—it feels more like an atelier in Paris. So when I ran into Torryne around town and mentioned my idea...it all came together. ‘A perfect little pop up made in heaven’ in Torryne's words.

Martha Davis comes at her work from an award winning career in industrial design before presenting her first footwear collection in ’09. Impeccably made in Italy, the collection is best described as architecture for the feet and is as innovative as it is chic. She and I became instant friends when introduced a couple of years ago-- it will be a lot of fun to set up shop with both of these stylish San Francisco women.

Please drop in if you are in the neighborhood, have a cup of tea and look at the goodies. I will be in there a lot, in the back working on drawings for January--that is how much I love the space. Did I say the store is painted entirely black? A very dramatic, interesting and unexpected choice and beyond lovely with Torryne's signature white arrangements.

Eye Catching

Worked all afternoon trying to bend my thoughts into thinking differently about shapes. I got small amounts of work done on fifty things at once. Not one thing got finished.

I found these little J's recently. I love the fancy ones. In my grandmother's day they were embroidered into the insides of your fur coat so you wouldn't get it mixed up in the coat check.

The bottom picture is an installation that Sheila Hicks did for Target's headquarters. This is in her Paris studio courtyard. I wish I could wear it around my neck!!

I.D. Please! - by Melissa Lim

Left to right: Frankie, Craig, Gail and Kismet. All Jeanine Payer

James Dean sporting an ID bracelet

Another silver ID bracelet which belonged to James Dean recently sold for $30,000

The King wearing his signature ID bracelet

Elvis' 14k diamond encrusted ID bracelet sold for over $500,000 at auction

The iconic ID bracelet, once worn by soldiers during the Second World War and now donned by both men and women as a fashion statement, has an interesting history. During WWII, the bracelets were a part of a soldier's uniform and was engraved with basic information (name, rank, serial number). After the war, many men still wore them proudly, as a badge of honor, thus starting a trend. By the 1950s and 60s, the ID bracelet became popular with rebellious teens as well as grown-ups.

Over the years, Jeanine Payer has designed her take on the ID bracelet. In our current collection, there are several versions, all beautifully engraved with poems or quotes.

Featured on the Gail bracelet:

The joys I have possessed are ever mine- ~ John Dryden

The quote seems to capture the essence of the high-spiritedness of both Elvis and James Dean, who lived their lives fast and hard, but by doing so, left this world all too soon.

In Progress...

A Member of the Wedding

I just ran across this beautiful picture of Morgan and her wedding party from a few years back. Morgan is the manager of one of our best stores in Canada, Rubaiyat. Don't these women look amazing? And they all are sporting our Edmond necklace!!

Finding One's Own Metier

Here is a picture our Kismet bracelet from Metier's much followed blog. I love how they paired it with a bracelet by Arielle De Pinto, a designer who's work is so edgy, so the opposite from my completely-without-edge world it makes the pairing interesting. .

Last Friday Metier, a store here in San Francisco, celebrated its 20th anniversary and they had a very fun party. It was especially meaningful for me to be there as I have sold to Sheri since she opened back in the day when it was a chic destination shop on Maiden Lane. More connections; Sheri's husband John, was our first IT guy another lifetime ago. But I know what it means to have a business for over two decades and how long that really is in 'fashion years'. It is an achievement to be proud of and to celebrate!

At the party there was a very cool live band. I was squeezing through the crowd to see who they were and only then did I realize that half the band was made up of two of Sheri's young kids! And Martha Davis's son was on the guitar! I was very inspired by these young people in their early teens just bringing it home and completely self confident and doing what they love. Creativity is alive and well in that circle. It was a really sweet thing to see such a powerful creative confluence of work and family; in that moment it all dovetailed so beautifully.

Love Grows Love: Wedding Ring Set Exclusive at Twist in Portland

Recently I created my first set of wedding rings for Twist in Portland. The solitaire diamond is rose cut and there are 4 small diamonds on the hand engraved side wings. The wedding band has two small diamonds on the side of the words:

Love grows love.

--Casey Haymes

The solitaire was a challenge for me as I am used to having the words be the main design element. Paul, the owner at Twist gave me some great pointers, direction and creative support and helped me to get in the right mindset. I can't wait to make more now!! In the end I think they turned out really great. These rings are only available at Twistonline.com and in the Twist retail store in Portland in the wedding ring room.

Our New Yearbook Shot

Picture Day at JPI!! Look at this good looking bunch!

In order of appearance from top:
Stephanie, Laura, Megan, Sonja
Bella, Izeta, Elvidina
Nina, Kazu, Ben

Winged Victory and Pegasus

the Victory necklace on Kazu.


Design in progress...

I love having the option of wearing a necklace really long or really short--and that's one of my favorite things about this necklace. The softness of the wing against the thick chain has an edge.


Pegasus bracelet with Kazu's great big watch.

When making the wing, I worked in a more gestural and loose way which is not my typical style. I brought my tools and wax home and worked on it for several nights after my son went to sleep (I no longer have my workbench in the dining room, drat! so the dresser had to suffice.) I have many times carried a wax model around with me in case I wanted to work on it in my moments of free time; the creative design process is ongoing and I literally feel attached to the unfinished work-in-progress.

It is always a happy surprise when a piece like the Pegasus bracelet becomes popular, because it carries no engraved poetry. The piece itself is my poem.

Fall Collection Notes

I got to visit the legendary and beloved Liberty of London store in the early 90's when I first started to sell to them. I learned firsthand about the history of these potent little flower prints that Liberty has been making for hundreds of years. It is so wonderful to be incorporating them now into these new styles. I love wearing these pieces, especially the New Moon and the Liberty bracelets, as they are statements and a new direction for me, and yet they are still in the JP vernacular.

My new collection is about texture, boldness and BIG graphic shapes. We ripped and braided the fabrics and put them up against large hammered neckpieces and over sized metal beads. The new group of Liberty art fabrics have captured my creative imagination; they were envisioned as part of a new collaboration with musicians and various artists involved in the music industry--a complete departure from anything Liberty has done in the past. I feel a kinship with the work being done at Liberty, as we both are trying to honor the best of the past and pull it into new, bolder and ever more exciting design work.

Braided Bliss... by Melissa

From top to bottom: Zephyr, Laloue, Small Universe & Journey. All Jeanine Payer

To the mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders. ~Lao Tzu

19th century Mourning bracelet advertisement

The back of a Victorian mourning brooch

Portrait of a young Queen Victoria in braids

Stevie Nicks, "Gold and Braid" live, 1981

In the 1880's, braided jewelry was sometimes used to commemorate the death of a loved one, which was the polar opposite of the 1980's, when a braided bracelet signified true and enduring friendship. The braiding process is a ancient one and can also be very therapeutic and spiritual in itself, and is found making its graceful way through Jeanine's Fall Collection. Besides leather, artisan fabrics from Liberty of London are used to create looks that marry both centuries - the Arts and Crafts look of Victorian England and the updated Preppy chic of the 1980's. It also reminds me of one of my favorite songs of Stevie Nicks, who, in 1981, looks like she stepped out of a 19th century Rossetti painting.

August Design in Progress

New work happening in the studio. New textures, new scale...

wax work and drawings..

my new favorite wax tools. My friend and living jewelry legend, Lisa Jenks, turned me on to these tools recently. I think the packaging is fantastic. The stripes!

Scatttering Butterflies Have Alighted

If you know me well then you know this Gregory Parkinson jacket well, too. It is one of my favorite things. I special ordered it in Paris over ten years ago while visiting with Gregory and Ron and David from Tenthousandthings at the hotel the Pavillion de la Reine. (The guys have just done a collaboration BTW) Aurora Lopez Mejia the jewelry designer dropped in along with Maria Rudman whose metal woven bracelets are my fave. and I remember we were all in an apres fashion week haze. This jacket is so special to me because it reminds me of that wonderful time in my life when I got to go to Paris at least twice a year for 'work'. The jacket is made from vintage silk fabric turned inside out. It isn't reversible, but I love that Gregory decided the back of the fabric was more interesting than the front! The vintage fabric works looks so pretty with the vintage string on the necklace. The hammered silver butterflies are inspired by the raw jewelry work of Alexander Calder jewelry. They have a delicate quality and at the same time are bold enough to make a statement. The fact that the butterflies are alighting on the braided string instead of chain is so summery to me, so easy breezy. The selection by Lwo-Tsu is so perfect for this piece. The last line is, '..the heart is open as the sky'. The Scattering necklace is not on our site but can be purchased through our retail store (415-788-2417) and also at MAC-Modern Appealing Clothing in the Yellow Building(415-863-3011)

The Master observes the world but trusts her inner vision.
She allows things to come and go.
Her heart is open as the sky.

--Lao Tzu
translated by Stephen Mitchell.