…………………..In 1990 Jac and I took a trip to Barbuda, a small island off Antigua…..We went to the Jumby Bay Resort, which was new, and was built and owned by the Italian designer Mariucci Mandela of Krizia and her husband, Aldo Pinto…….Jac had modeled in her shows for many years, and we thought it would be fun to go to her resort and see what it was like……I ALWAYS traveled with a little pad and pen to sketch on incase an idea came to me…..even on the beach…..One sunny beautiful day I was standing ankle deep in the water when I saw a school of fish swim by…..When I went back to my lounge chair I sat under a palm tree for shade, and jotted down the word “FISH”…….As I laid there I looked up and saw the beautiful palm fronds…..I sat up and did some quick sketches of fish and the fronds, and the FISH JEWELRY, and PALM FROND jewelry were born….The sketch in the collage was my first sketch to remember my idea…..Many more sketches would be drawn to develop the pieces ….Eventually different fish earrings, a school of fish belt and necklace, a bone bracelet….and the FISH PENDANT all became part of the Resort 1991 Collection…I did them in all metal with color cabochon stone eyes, and some had metal heads and tails but the center bones were made out of clear Lucite….I also did a small group of palm frond inspired pieces….The necklace and earrings seen on Ally Dunn in the photos at the bottom right were part of the group……Years later when I was doing my Linea line of jewelry for QVC I reproduced some of these pieces exactly as they were done for Anne Klein……Out of all the styles the PENDANT was the most successful, and was reordered for many years. I eventually made it in different metal colors……all sold out…….They are now collectors items as the original Anne Klein pieces are……if you can find them!!!!
