Paula Dawkins Fine Jewelry
Jewels That Dance store manager, Marlene Clevenger, successfully completed the TCS New York City Marathon on November 1. Along with about 50,000 other runners, she got to climb 5 bridges and visit all 5 boroughs of New York City – on foot.
Marlene’s hard work and training paid off and she achieved a personal best time in the race. What’s next for this marathoner and triathlete? More races to keep her as challenged athletically as she is in the jewelry business.
Susan Francis will be dancing the role of the cheshire cat in the upcoming performance of ‘The 12 days of Alice’s Winter Ashevilleland.” The performance is scheduled for December 5 at the Orange Peel. Produced and choreographed by Christine Garvin, this magical holiday journey will put the audience in the holiday spirit while celebrating the character of the ‘real’ Asheville. It is billed as a ‘dance-comedy-music-cabaret- circus-arts extravaganza.’ For tickets or more information, contact the Orange Peel at 828-398-1837.
Just down the road from our store is the Basilica of St. Lawrence, located at 97 Haywood Street. The church has a rich history and a beautiful collection of vividly-colored stained glass windows, all of which were handmade in Munich, Germany.
Rafael Guastavino (1842-1908) was an architect and builder of Spanish origin who left Barcelona and came to Asheville to work on the Biltmore House in the mid-1890s. He decided to stay and built a home near Black Mountain. In 1905 Guastavino began work on St. Lawrence Catholic Church in the style of Spanish Renaissance. The work was completed in 1909.
There are no beams of wood or steel in the entire structure. The dome in the Basilica of St. Lawrence is said to be the largest unsupported dome in North America.
His method of building used layers of thin tile bedded in layers of mortar to create curved horizontal surfaces. Floors, roofs, ceilings and stairs can all be formed with this system, usually in the shape of vaults or domes. Possibly Middle Eastern in origin, this way of building creates a strong, fireproof and attractive surface. Every horizontal surface in the building is made of this combination of tile and mortar. The building also houses the crypt of Rafael Guastavino.
Guastavino’s work may be found in over a thousand buildings, mainly in the northeast, including Grant’s Tomb, the Great Hall at Ellis Island, Grand Central Station, Carnegie Hall and the Chapel at West Point all in New York. His other work in North Carolina includes the Duke Chapel in Durham, the Jefferson Standard Building in Greensboro, the Motley Memorial in Chapel Hill and St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Wilmington. Tours of the Basilica are available on Sunday afternoons and by appointment.
Jewels That Dance has a spokesperson! It’s Julie Wunder, the former morning-news meteorologist on WLOS-TV.
Julie left the station in June to allow more balance in her life and to pursue her interests in health and fashion. She’s created a fun and informative blog, Running In A Skirt (www.runninginaskirt.com), which details her passions: running, fashion and health.
We’re big fans of her blog, and we’re excited about our partnership with Julie.
Check out our first television ad with Julie:
This season, we’re introducing a new line of fun bangle bracelets for the holidays. These gold-infill bracelets come with a variety of charms talismans, lucky charms and spiritual symbols, from evil eyes to St. Christopher medals.
They are a great way to dress up a casual look. And at the priced at just $29 to $49, they also make great stocking stuffers!
Come in and check out the line!
High-tech meets organic in Paula Dawkins stunning new jewelry collection, “Cornucopia,” which debuted late this fall.
Inspired by the colors and impressions of autumn and winter – warm oranges and reds to icy-cold black diamonds – the line was designed by Paula using T-Spline technology, a cutting-edge 3-D design software for jewelers.
“The line reflects both my mood and my life over the past year,” Paula said. “For me, fall is about a full woodshed, a successful garden harvest, beauty and bounty. But it is also bittersweet, as colorful fall fades into the cold starkness of winter. In my personal life, my daughter, Julia, was going away to college, which made me happy for her, but a bit sad to see her leave home.” These are some of the emotions and experiences that are reflected in Cornucopia.
Using T-Spine, Paula was able to create the sun and moon faces of the anchor pieces of the line (see photo). The sun-face with its burnished 18-carat golden glow surrounded by diamonds, evokes bright, vibrant autumn days. The moon-face pendant, a brushed white-gold with twinkling diamond stars suggests cold winter nights. Likewise other pieces in the collection reflect the falling leaves and changing colors of autumn, through colorful sapphires, and the dark stillness of winter, through black onyx and diamond stones.
“This line is technically superior to anything we’ve done before. As a studio we really pushed ourselves with this line,” Paula said. “We began the design process in August, and worked on it for three months.” All did not go smoothly, however; in the middle of creating the line, Paula fell off a ladder and broke her leg! “It set us back a little,” she laughs, but she made a speedy recovery and got back to work.
The new line debuted on November 5 and is available now in the store (69 Haywood Street in downtown Asheville) and on line at www.pauladawkins.com.
In keeping with the autumn theme of abundance and bounty, Jewels That Dane donated 10% of the sales of the collection, during the first 10-days of the launch, to Manna Food Bank.