JUGGLING the demands of a family with the success of her exciting new jewellery range means a hectic life for artist Mrs Emma Ropner.
Her mosaic jewellery is so distinctive designers have stopped her in the street to ask where she got it from, before featuring it in their catwalk shows - and her customers include Tory leader and Richmond MP Mr William Hague and wife, Ffion.
The 36-year-old, from Newton le Willows, near Bedale, has run mosaic workshops from an attic studio above a stable at her home since 1995, but only found the inspiration for the jewellery during a trip to Paris last Easter.
"I saw a cross and bought it. I love collecting crosses, that's why I make them. I was holding it and I wondered if I could make a base big enough to make mosaic jewellery,'' she explained.
"I hadn't seen any mosaic crosses, so as soon as I got home I began designing.''
Sales to customers like Mr Hague came as a result of the success Mrs Ropner has experienced in the North, but she is also set to crack the London market after her jewellery was launched at Akademi in Motcomb Street last weekend.
This success could easily have passed Mrs Ropner by, as she did not start her working life in art or jewellery making.
On the advice of her mother, who urged her to do an academic degree, she went to Manchester university to read English and American literature, before working in the media in London for a year.
She met her husband, Charles, who is from Patrick Brompton, and returned to Yorkshire to marry him and have three children.
However, she found she was unable to suppress her creative, inventive instinct, which, she says, is typical of her star sign Aquarius
"While the children were young I decided to go to Cleveland college of art to do fine art and ceramics.
"We were asked to do a mosaic picture. It must have all been filtering into my brain, the influence of mosaics, because I then decided I would like to go and do a course in Kent, an intensive three-day course on mosaics.
"I have been working with mosaics ever since the course in Kent in 1995.''
Initially, Mrs Ropner used the skills she had learned to create private commissions, run her own workshops in mosaic making, for both adults and children, as well as children's mosaic-making birthday parties.
"My six years of mosaic work has trained me well, because the jewellery is a precision technique. I don't know anyone else who is attempting to do what I'm doing.''
Her interest in mosaics goes deeper than a simple appreciation: "I'm very interested in mosaics, the fact they're old and have been used since the second century.
"I love the way they have come through the ages and there is a lot of history behind them.
"Although I do quite contemporary work, I can refer to the past for inspiration. I'm quite a modern person, but I do have something inside me that draws me to the past.
"I never really use reds or yellows in my work. I prefer that old, gentle palette of colours; stone shades of taupe and ochre.''
Mrs Ropner gives each piece of jewellery she designs a name, such as the Otto square, named after a horse she had.
The pieces are distinctive, bold and unique.
"Wearing the jewellery gets it noticed. People tend to buy it off my neck, virtually. I have designer pieces ready to buy, but I do make pieces to order as well.
"I can't make two the same though, I've tried, but I just can't.''
So far the range of mosaic jewellery includes the cross and square necklaces, rings, cufflinks and cuffs, and the newest addition is belt buckles.
Despite the success of the range, Mrs Ropner continues to develop new ideas.
"I want to do as many jewellery accessories as I can and then maybe go into a range of home things, which I have done for ages, or I may do bags. There's all sorts you can do. I've only just begun.''
Her work will be on show as part of the Art for Youth exhibition at Tennant's in Leyburn from May 21-26.
Prices for her jewellery start at £50 for a pair of cufflinks.
For more information about her jewellery or the mosaic workshops and birthday parties she runs, contact Mrs Ropner on 01677 424049, or email her at emma a tower, and on s
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