What started as a fascination with colour turned into an excitable obsession for jewelry maker Liliane Gurnon. The Toronto artist explains how a simple hobby has inspired her to design jewelry made from unique stones and crystals.
Digital Journal — For Liliane Gurnon, it started with the carnelian stone. The Toronto resident fell in love with the reddish brown quartz stone when she saw it at a boutique five years ago. She bought the carnelian instantly. The next day, she woke up with a flu but she slept with the stone, clutching it in her hand like a child holding a teddy bear.
“The next day I woke up and I didn’t feel tired or sick,” says Gurnon in an interview with DigitalJournal.com. “The stone recognized my tiredness, my energy. And that’s when I started making jewelry for friends and family.”
At first, it was all about the carnelian. She strung the stones onto silver or gold chains, making necklaces in her spare time. Gurnon, originally from Versailles, France, says she is enchanted by colour, so she wanted to branch out from just the caramel stone. She began to venture into turquoise and coral stones, dabbling with pearls and citrine quartz, too. The hobby escalated into a passion for Gurnon, and the design work has made her a success story for jewelry makers who want to follow their artistic dreams.
“The energy of the stones relaxed me, and I like to create what I like to wear,” says Gurnon, who works full-time as a hair colourist for Hair One in Toronto. She is the wife of George Gurnon, owner of renowned restaurant Pastis.
She often sells her jewelry to clients at her beauty salon, whether they are CEOs, judges, writers or models. The price of her necklaces, bracelets and earrings range from $200 to $600.
She says her work with jewelry isn’t just about the look. She believes every crystal and quartz gives off a different energy. Citrine, for example, assists those with kidney disease, but Gurnon is quick to point out the stones will act as more of a soothing object than as an actual medication.
“Stones have always been used to help people heal,” Gurnon says, “because they have this energy that comes from the ground.”
Her passion translates into truly magnificent artwork. A necklace adorned with the chrysocolla mineral — a blue-green covered in glassy veins — reminded Gurnon of the Bermuda sea when she travelled there years ago before moving to Toronto in 1972. Turquoise and onyx stones adorn another necklace, which Gurnon loves for its “earthiness.” Another piece displays subtly coloured pearls (yes, they are not only white), giving it a rainbow-like shine that truly jumps off the necklace.
Gurnon is also a fan of using rare materials. She shows us an eye-catching red coral necklace, the pieces shaped like small cones. Gurnon says red coral is extremely hard to find and while the stones were expensive to buy (the piece retails for $400), she said the end result was well worth it.
She has also worked with rose quartz, moss agate, tourmaline, rubies, sapphires, kunzite, amethyst and – one rare moment – bleached mahogany. Wait, that’s not a stone, right? Gurnon says she paired the mahogany with pearls because “wood can go with some casual wear, like a pair of jeans.” Evidently, Gurnon always has the complete picture in mind, not just what the buyer puts around his or her neck.
Her jewelry has already captured the attention of some major players in the industry: The Gardiner Museum in Toronto (known for its ceramics displays) recently accepted 20 of Gurnon’s products, ranging from necklaces to earrings.
Gurnon, like many jewelry makers, say she would like to make her hobby a business, if only she had more time to dedicate to the craft. “Then again, if it becomes a big business, I might not enjoy it as much,” she footnotes.
What Gurnon truly enjoys is coming home from work to craft her jewelry, often creating pieces on the living room table. When the weather is warm, she likes spending afternoons in her garden and sun-tanning while fine-tuning her necklaces.
Gurnon says she’s a perfectionist who can work on a necklace or earring for two hours or two weeks. She needs to make sure every portion of the piece is exactly what she wants.
Looking at her vast collection of jewelry, you can tell how creative this artist’s mind has become since she became more focused on design. Gurnon’s attention to detail speaks volumes about her approach to art: “I want to create one-of-a-kind pieces. I don’t want to do the same thing twice. It’s too easy to do the same thing every time.”
