Announcement    Welcome to my "new " ETSY shop. We have recently relocated to Richmond, Virginia, assuming new musical positions in the city. Boxes are mostly unpacked inside the house, but my designs have filled my studio and I am ready to focus on showing you my latest work.

In the last two years, I have expanded my non-musical work to jewelry designing and fabrication. My inspiration is the Art Nouveau - JUGENSTIL Period. Emerging from Germany and then Austria. JUGENSTIL is, and I quote from Wikipedia,

" an international philosophy and style of art, architecture and applied art – especially the decorative arts – that was most popular during 1890–1910. English uses the French name Art Nouveau ("new art"), but the style has many different names in other countries. A reaction to academic art of the 19th century, it was inspired by natural forms and structures, not only in flowers and plants, but also in curved lines. Architects tried to harmonize with the natural environment.

Art Nouveau is considered a "total" art style, embracing architecture, graphic art, interior design, and most of the decorative arts including jewellery, furniture, textiles, household silver and other utensils and lighting, as well as the fine arts. According to the philosophy of the style, art should be a way of life. For many well-off Europeans, it was possible to live in an art nouveau-inspired house with art nouveau furniture, silverware, fabrics, ceramics including tableware, jewellery, cigarette cases, etc. Artists desired to combine the fine arts and applied arts, even for utilitarian objects.

Although Art Nouveau was replaced by 20th-century Modernist styles, it is now considered as an important transition between the eclectic historic revival styles of the 19th-century and Modernism."

In my late teens, I began to collect celluloid dresser boxes, that often were decorated with papers from this period. Soon the collection expanded - beginning with textiles, in the form of fabric and period dress, to wallpaper samples, ephemera dealing with design, then art and finally furniture and jewelry. Some of my pieces of jewelry were intact, but I also purchased pieces that were parts of pieces and pieces needing repair. It was then, after studying design and jewelry fabrication, and living in Vienna, Austria, (which is an inspiration from gardens to buildings and museums) that I began to make pieces of my own, using materials from this period. There is a stylistic homage to Jugenstil, but with my voice.

On my site, you will find textiles, original jewelry designs, the celluloid box collection and other bits and bobs from the habits of a collector. Hopefully, you will be delighted with what you see.

Paula Pugh Romanaux, Richmond, VA
paulapughromanaux, Designs