When I told you of the Opening Party at The Dunes Gallery on beautiful Prince Edward Island in my last post, I only spoke about the location and the party. What I didn’t tell you about is the wonderful meeting of old friends that I was able to witness.
I had driven up with Judy Anderson, founder, owner and designer at Fireworks Gallery in Halifax. On the long drive, Judy told me about the amazing connection she has with these close old friends, artists Astrid Brunner (here with husband Norval Balch), and Eve Llyndorah, whom we were about to connect with again on PEI. The Opening Party of The Dunes Gallery is an annual meeting spot for these dear friends, with the feel of a family reunion. It truly was a joy to behold their deep mutual love upon encountering each other in the crowd of the party: their whole body expressed this love.
I had written about lovely Eve Llyndorah when I met her last year (see here). Her hauntingly beautiful work (available at The Dunes) has put a spell on me for years. Author Astrid Brunner describes herself as “a passably accomplished fool of time”. You can read more about her and Norval on their publisher’s website, here. The name of the publisher matches beautifully the outrageous attitude to life and beauty which Astrid possesses: “AB Collector Publishing: your significant peripheral publisher since 1990″.
We all talked late into the night. In the morning, we met for a simple, but luxuriously extended brunch. Astrid, who loves jewellery, and certainly is not afraid to wear it (why not wear three outrageously gorgeous, big long earrings in each ear!?”), showed off her collection of custom-made rings which were all inspired by the beloved mountain ranges of her Swiss ancestral homeland, the Glarus (check out that link … pretty spectacular!). I happened to be able to catch a photo of the rings as she talked about them.
The ring on the left is designed and made by Judy Anderson; the mountain range encircles the lovely setting of the green stone. The two rings on the right were created by Swiss goldsmith Peter Oberholzer in his atelier Bergschmuck. The ring in the centre has crystals set perpendicularly in the ‘crack’, and the one on the right has the mountain range come out from the surface of the ring.
I felt like a lucky observer as the conversation of the three friends became deeper and deeper. Emotional boundaries were met, and crossed. The flower of deep friendship was blossoming in front of me; this must be the magical hour in which, once a year, it does this.
What I love about the story of these three lady friends is that they have been this closely linked since their first days at The Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, now NSCAD University, many many years ago. For me, as a graduate of NSCAD, this is of romantic significance. Oooh, that reminds me: I must tell you all about the fabulous article written about professor Pamela Ritchie, under whom I studied, in Metalsmith magazine! I’ll do that soon, promise.
