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.jewelsthatdance.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.