Jewelry has been part of my life for as long as I can remember. My first memories are inextricably  linked with a pair of dangling earrings belonging to my mum, or with one special ring my grandmother wore. Like many little girls, I looked in awe to my mother's jewelry, dreaming of the day I'd be allowed to wear some of these magic pieces.

And then, one special encounter took place, an encounter that would change my life completely, even if many years later:  in the summer of 1983 I was sent next to Yverdon, Switzerland, in order to learn French.  Learning this  language seemed to me to be a  living nightmare, and I was looking for every occasion that could enable me to escape this ordeal.  It didn't take me long to find a place where to hide, a place where no one would ask me to talk: it was next door, in a barn in which a couple of young glass artists had established their studio. Monica Guggisberg's and Philip Baldwin's glass  pieces did mesmerize me. I could sit there for hours, looking at them while they were blowing glass, seeing this wonder repeat itself again and again: out of a furnace, a chunk of glowing hot glass would be pulled out and then worked until a transparent and colourful form would emerge. That was true magic.

Therefore, when years later, I was offered the opportunity to take a class in lampworking in Murano, with Master Davide Penso, I grabbed it eagerly.  I continued with jewelry classes given by a fabulous teacher, Mrs Hélène Othenin-Girard,  whose pieces I did, and still do, admire greately.

What else could I say: that's how the story begun.