en-Galadriel's tiara, from a drawing by Sandrine Gestin

A few years ago, I discovered the work of Sandrine Gestin, well-known french fantasy painter and illustrator... 

And browsing her Artbook, rich in her journey that she shares with passion, I once noted a sentence... 

It concerned the particular care she takes for the jewels designs in her portraits, more precisely that of "Galadriel", her personal version of the character of JRR Tolkien. 

And her words ran through my head for several days ... 

"I dream of a day when a jeweler will be able to make them real"...

We are then at the end of the summer of 2015 ...

I have acquired a certain ease in the practice of leather carving and I see this as an opportunity to try something new for the pattern of Sandrine is quite one of those that can be done with this technique ... 

I gathered my courage to explain her my motivation through a letter, to which she answers almost immediately... 

With this benevolence that seems to characterize her... I just have to roll up my sleeves... "At your tools" she simply told me. 

It took me several months of thinking and testing to transform what was for me a 2D drawing, into a real and tangible object... 

To manage the proportions to fit with the original drawing and find solutions that make it a head jewel that can be worn... 

And it finally came out in the spring of 2016, made of carved leather, silver metal, mother-of-pearl and moonstone... I sent her the pics... which she immediately relayed... 

Results more than 15,000 views on Facebook in a month! Challenge faced!

If you do not yet know the wonderful world of Sandrine Gestin, I suggest you remedy it by clicking ici !