Thank you to all who joined for the jewellery webinar I did on Wednesday. It was my first one so I was slightly wary — used to speaking to an audience I can see! — but given that travel and lectures aren't happening any time soon, I figured it was worth a go.
And it sure was: I was very touched to see so many people tuning in, leaving comments and asking such interesting questions. Thank you also to GemX Club for hosting me on their platform — such a source of knowledge for jewellery lovers all over the world.
My talk was on the Cartiers — yes, there were glamorous clients and spectacular jewels on show, but I also wanted to take the audience into the lives of the three brothers: Louis Cartier, Pierre Cartier and Jacques Cartier, sharing untold stories and opening a window into a different world.
Once I got over the whole talking-to-a-screen lark, it seemed apt to be telling those family tales from my study, filled with my ancestors' books, in my late grandfather's house — almost like they were there with me (which in a way they were, looking out from their photographs behind me).
I also delved into some of my research behind the book — pictures of trips to India and Sri Lanka where I (and my lucky children!) met the descendants of those my globe-trotting, gem-buying great-grandfather had known. The slide here shows me and him on the Ceylon sapphire-buying trail.
I feel very privileged to have had the opportunity to follow in his footsteps and see such incredible things: those murky stones pulled from the earth and transformed into bright blue gems. I'm also holding up a 1927 newspaper article of Jacques on that very trip, which he kept carefully in a trunk of long-lost letters I discovered a decade ago.
Some of you have asked for more webinars in the future — I'm open to it. A couple of ideas that came out of that talk were India and Pearls, but I'd love to hear your suggestions.
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