TicTacTalks ForumPosted by adrianNJ
November 1, 2006 - 01:40AM cet
IP : 24.228.9.132
Email : dexco@hotmail.com
we had a chance of visiting Anita Porchet...she's the only artist in the WORLD that can do a perfect Paillonnee dial completely by hand to match the artists if 18th and 19th centuries...she's sought after Piaget, Audemars Piguet, UN, IWC, PP, and many others to make unique and expensive pieces....
while we were there a catastrophe happened...just before she wanted to explain to us her art, all the shelves that you see in some of the pictures collapsed on the floor...jars broken, old colorants spilled, etc...we were stunned for few seconds...we thought that she'll go insane...i know i would...but what we did what we had to do...we rolled our sleeves and we helped her pick hundreds of jars and cleaned a little bit the place up...we put them in boxes...i have pictures of the room after the accident with empty walls and jars in cardboard boxes on the floor, but due to the respect that i have for the wonderful artist she is, i will not post them...
and yet, she found the strength to show us what she does and even a small demonstration...one act of grace was that the tiny glass jars containing the gold leafs didn't break!...
adrian
although you've seen some of the pics in Jon's posts, i decided to post them anyway...
Swiss countryside on our way to lunch...
a quick picture of Violeta's GD with Mark's GS...both watches sporting new straps...shhh
after we left the boutique we went to grab lunch in a quiet little village...do you see anyone in the "town square"?...
the restaurant...
around the lunch table...
Jon is explaining Nathalie what a GPS is...little did he know.....
Mark is wondering.."when are they bringing the food?"...Joe is thinking "brown cows? how come?"
Cheers!
okay, after a wonderful lunch, we left for a short 12km ride to Anita's house...it was about 1:40 PM...by 2:50 PM we made it...speed around 10km/h..."Jon, how does a GPS work?"
but the scenery was worth it...hey, here are the two bike riders...on our first encounter with them...
we finally arrived at Anita's place...not only she's a great person, she's also a very curteous softspoken host with lots of patience and an aura of a great artist...
she was working on some PHM...
shelves full of jars...that we all had a first chance for hands-on...
Nathalie talking with Anita...as you can see Anita received yet another jar...this time one full of Virginia peanuts...
a drawing of a Paillonnee PHM...
and the final product...
gold leaves from 19th century...once they're gone...they're gone!!!...so, if you want to have a Paillonne dial made by the only artist in Switzerland that can make it, i suggest you move before she finishes all of those containers...interesting how all those shapes of golden leaves were sorted by shape and size...
a glimpse into Anita's workshop...
a box of enamels surrounded by everybody...
the box...amazing colors...
how the work progresses...
Anita at work...what a sight...her steady hand and calm impressed us all...especially after the shelves crushing to the ground an hour before...
time to get back on the road...we had to wait for the cat to move...
let's call it a night...
thanx for looking,
adrian
"How you behave toward cats here below determines your status in Heaven"
Robert Heinlein
