Sunday, March 27, 2016

Happenstance Blue: Anthony Eglin and Chopard's Precious Couture

Baselworld 2016 ended on Thursday, March 24th, the same day I finished Anthony Eglin's mystery, The Blue Rose (Minotaur Books, 2005).



In one of my previous posts, Botanical Companions: J.G. Ballard and Chaumet,  as is the case in this one, an author and a watchmaker, i.e. Eglin and  Chopard are connected by my old friend happenstance. The color blue is the bridge between the Eglin's novel and Chopard's Precious Couture wristwatch.
 
Chopard Precious Couture  Model 1044271004

 

Coincidentally, Isabelle Guignet wrote in her Swiss Watch Authority WorldTempus post  on March 24th,  "Blue is the colour — Cool blue is the hottest colour for this year’s Baselworld ... in every shade from cerulean to royal blue.



So let's explore Eglin's haute horticulture work and Maison Chopard's haute joaillerie creation. In doing so literature can enliven horological artistry.

In the Blue Rose, the main character is the book's namesake, a blue rose bush.
Rosarians know that in nature, this is an unnatural bloom. Roses do not produce  delphinidin, the blue colored pigment needed to produce this wonder. Throughout garden history, such a colored rose is a beautiful genetic aberration  with discordant qualities of both attraction and lethality.

The presumptive owners of the mysterious hybrid are an English couple, Kate and Alex Sheppard who discover the flowering rarity when they purchase an English country home and its overgrown garden. The rose and rights to its hybridization will be worth millions to the international rose industry. In an effort to hide the rose's existence until it can be strategically marketed, Alex and Kate use the code name, "Sapphire" instead of referring to it by its color.  

Additional characters, like blooms and thorns, spring from the flower's find: a retired Edinburgh botanist, scheming buyers, lawyers, nursery owners, cryptographers, police inspectors, and murderers. All are critical to the narrative.
 
Chopard's Precious Couture wristwatch, making its debut at Baselworld 2016 reflects the Blue Rose in one very special, overwhelming way -- its pulsating sapphire adornment radiating in profusion from its central corolla.

In all its grandeur, the watch is 18 ct. white gold with 25 cts. of pear-shaped sapphires; 7.5 cts. of pastel blue sapphires, and marquise-cut sapphires and brilliant cut diamonds.  

It's akin to the distinctive singularity of Eglin's Blue Rose. A bracelet and time dial adorned by natural precious gemstones elements, conceived by designers and brought to market by the creativity of an entire atelier of fine craftsman,

It's a wondrous showstopper, at home in the international trade of  rarefied, luxury time. It can be owned but not ultimately possessed for posterity -- just as a blue rose would be.

Related posts:

Dials Too Can Get the Blues

 March 2016 Bench #3 -- Anthony Eglin




     

  

Sunday, March 13, 2016

Two Years On and Timing Forward: My Latest Blogging Experiences

Every 5 or 6 months I write about my experiences of being a blogger during that time frame. I wrote my last update on November 1, 2015, Still Dialing Through at Twenty-two. Twenty-two months, not age or years that is.

Now Daylight Savings Time 2016 is here; Spring is a week away and it's again time for my short-term reflections/retrospection.  

My actual posting activity on this blog has slowed down.  I've only published 6  posts during the period under review. However, page views continue to be healthy and are close to 20,500. 


Lesson Learned #1: My greatest challenge has been finding time for blog  sustainability.

Chalk the time-sharing up to the holidays, tax preparation, providing technical guidance for my husband James Raciti's new blog, America's Revolutionary Voices;and helping him publicize his new book, Stephen Girard: America's Colonial Olympian 1750-1831 to libraries across the country.

Stephen Girard: America's Colonial Olympian published by Sunstone Press, Santa Fe NM, 2015, ISBN 1632930706


Not to mention going to a new dog park for daily-demanded outings by Gustav, our 180 pound, 8 year old Great Pyrenees Mountain Dog.


The family Gustav-Raciti
 
ADD to this my new blog, Strolling Among the Watches / Flanânt Parmi les Montres. This is a companion blog to Wrist Watch Redux. It describes "Short Walks on Historical, Corporate, Creative and Cultural Watchscape Paths." 

My New Blog: www.watchflaneuse.com
I've also spent more time reading the advice of  two exceptional blogging experts, Robin Houghton and Jane Friedman.  

Robin's written The Golden Rules of Blogging (& When to Break Them) and Blogging For Creatives. I've read both and highly recommend them.  I've also featured her in one of my posts on Watch Flaneuse

Jane Friedman offers advice online through her Weekly Blog Round-up and newsletter, Electric Speed delivered to my email. Check them out.

Lesson Learned #2:  Reading does contribute to sustainability. It's just that it doesn't necessarily show up in or as more post writing in the short term.

Lesson Learned #3: Sustainability can come from Unexpected Sources.

The quintessential blog sustainability observation that has gotten me through this period comes from Nora Ephron.  Ten years ago this month, she wrote in one of her blogs titled Hello. By the Way. Whatever.:

"One of the most delicious things about the profoundly parasitical world of blogs is that you don't have to have anything much to say. Or you just have to have a little tiny thing to say. You just might want to say hello. I'm here. And by the way. On the other hand. Nevertheless. Did you see this? Whatever. A blog is sort of like an exhale. What you hope is that whatever you're saying is true for about as long as you're saying it. Even if it's not much."

So in tribute to Nora.  I'm Here. And by the Way. I'm Still at It.  

Related blogging experience posts:

 Still Dialing Through at Twenty-two (November 2015)

 BeWatching Midnight: Taking Stock Twelve Months On (February 2015)

 Taking Stock at Six O’Clock: Beginning My Blogging Career (August 2014)

   
      








Exploring what Pinerest can offer to bloggers