Astrid Hall
Early on Astrid travelled all over Europe with her parents. Ecclesial artwork of medieval Italian churches, the style of Gothic cathedrals and French renaissance palaces, and the magnificent palazzos of "La Serenissima," the city of Venice, opened doors of the mind and rendered an education in a style that no textbook can match. Views of the Tuscan countryside, red Dutch farm houses against cool grey skies, azure blue lakes with borders of emerald green and the purple of the lavender fields in Provence against midnight blue skies developed a sense of colour that only nature can teach. Engineering prep school taught metal smithing and welding, designing and drafting skills that would later lend the foundation to her designs.
After industrial engineering college, Astrid became the general manager of a high couture skirt factory, having another opportunity to work with the artistic colour combinations of Italy, the style of Parisian France, and precise Swiss manufactured materials and designs. Style and colour was again the centre of her world.
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When Astrid met her future husband, a Naval officer, she refused to become a military "dependent." Instead, she started working,
first as a project engineer, then as a contract negotiator for the government, enabling her to accompany her husband. Her husband's developing career led them all over the globe, including Hawaii, Guam, and Singapore, where his additional offices in Hong Kong, Vietnam, and Australia led to further travels throughout Asia. Bali and Thailand left indelible impressions of beauty and grace, symphonies of style and colour.
One day, in a hotel room in Hong Kong overlooking the beautiful Victoria Harbour, Astrid admired some gemstones she had bought at the Jade Market in Hong Kong and intuitively drew the parallels with another sea faring city in the west, Venice, Italy. This initial impression led her to design jewellery with origins in both the Adriatic and the China Sea. Gems 2 Behold™ as a company was the next logical step.
Gems2Behold™ brings you pearls from the waters of the Pacific, gemstones from all over Asia, and beads from Venice, handmade in the same centuries-old glass making tradition in a marriage between East and West, beauty and meaning.
Astrid and Gems2Behold.com currently reside in Alsfeld, Germany where Astrid originally went to high school and her now aging parents still live - where she continues to design unique, stylish jewellery reflecting the path of her life.
Astrid´s daughter Kae, after completing a Bachelor in Applied Arts at Westminster University in London, has joined the company and is responsible, amongst many other things, for the beautiful bead pictures. Recently Kae and her 12 year old brother Miles have engaged in developing a young, fresh jewelry line called the MiKa line, using white heart Murano glass beads with a mix of ceramic beads.
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