The Links That Join Us: Alexandra Simondetti Small
Alexandra Simondetti has worked as a painter and decorative artist for over 30 years. In the early 1990s, she relocated to Italy to immerse herself in its art and culture. She studied trompe-l’œil and drew inspiration from the frescoes of the great painters in the many ancient and beautiful palazzos, monasteries, and churches. Those formative years in Italy profoundly shaped her career and led to commissions in homes, palaces, and hotels worldwide, from NYC and Arizona to the Emirates and Hong Kong. With an extensive body of work and high-profile commissions worldwide, Alexandra’s rare combination of talent, mastery, and decades of experience marks her as an eminent artisan of her craft.
Creativity has always run through my family. My great grandmother was a painter and world-traveller, bringing back keepsakes like a paintbrush holder from Bali which can be seen in my painting above. My mother was also a painter, and now Pippa and I have both followed in their creative footsteps, myself as a painter and Pippa a jewellery designer. It’s incredibly special to us that the women in our family have all followed these artistic paths.
I have sentimental pieces of my work hanging in my home like this tray, painted for my mother, of a vegetable garden in Spain belonging to one of my sisters. Then the water-coloured card, which my mother framed, that I had sent her from an island in the Middle East where I was commissioned by a Sheikh (who owned the island) to decoratively paint inside the vernacular-style huts. There were only wild camels for company on the island - it’s a fun memory. Then a painting of Turkish 18th century-style lilies on a yellow ground.
I began a series of Tree of Life paintings in 2013 after creating the first Tree of Life for Pippa’s Artisan's Pavilion at the Chelsea Flower Show. The use of gold leaf was inspired by a mural Pippa had seen in Rajasthan, combined with my passion for plants and gardens. Later I developed on to gilding whole panels and then painting on top - thinking of exotic religious icon tablets. I feel the gold creates a deep space, and I anchor my trees in the foreground of that space, with leafy flowering and animals. I recently have been commissioned to create several, which have been shipped to Taormina in Sicily for the newly decorated Garden Suites at the Grand Hotel Timeo, they wanted Sicilian trees and plants. The hotel sits beside the Greek theatre overlooking the sea, with the volcano Mount Etna towering above. I love the olive tree most. I try to get to Tuscany in October to spend a week picking olives to make some of our own oil.
There are pieces of Pippa’s jewellery that I reach for without thinking. They have quietly become part of who I am and how I move through the world.
One of my favourite necklaces is a 22-karat gold magnolia flower that Pippa designed and had made by Turquoise Mountain artisans in Yangon. Here it’s worn with my precious woven wool shirt I bought in Leh, Ladakh in 1987 when Pippa and I did our first travel to explore India and Kashmir for 3 months of university summer break.
This watercolour is naively painted by our mother that summer when she vicariously took pleasure in hearing about our travels in India – she captured our friend Sebastian driving us to Udaipur on his Enfield motorcycle.
My very first Pippa ring came twenty-four years ago, and it is pure Pippa in every sense: an uncut aquamarine stone with a rough, undulating surface, the high karat gold is soft enough to hug the stone, sinking in and jutting around the edges joining stone to finger. I find myself gazing into the pale blue stone imaging a body of water and wanting to dive in.
When my twins were born, I was given diamonds in a traditional white gold setting. I only started to wear them when Pippa came up with a design for them to be set in rich yellow 22-karat gold, handmade by Sushil, who hammered them and left his marks visible on the sleek, ancient-looking shapes Pippa chose. I love the way the gold overlaps and tucks the diamonds in safely - making them so practical to wear every day and when doing any work with my hands. I never take the rings off, but when I am ready to pass them on, I have no difficulty dividing fairly, she made 2 rings - I wear them together on one finger - one ring for each of my twins.
I was given a charm bracelet from my husband’s grandmother which Pippa immediately improved. Each link is slightly different, with some semi-precious stones she chose for me dangling alongside her gold seeds and leaves, and charms that were passed onto me. It’s a piece that quietly carries several generations at once.
I always wear two bracelets made by the young artisans of Zindagi Now, Pippa’s foundation in Kabul, which teaches women and men in Afghanistan the art of jewellery design and making, as well as the skills to build a business. The bracelets are rough, uncut mixed stones, and a brown faceted rutilated quartz. I am never apart from them, even when I sleep. My Navratna is always on too to keep me safe, and I feel incomplete without them, along with my mother’s gold watch from the 1960s.
In this photo I wear a necklace made in Kabul that Pippa designed using an array of semi-precious stones mined in Afghanistan, with excellent workmanship setting stones in gold vermeil (gold-plated silver) making a very affordable but precious necklace.
When dressing up, I reach for the solid-gold handmade antique beaded necklace that Pippa strung for me herself: a great dark slab of green tourmaline, labradorite, wrapped in malleable high karat gold and a colette-set emerald.
Something I wear proudly is a hand-blown dark green glass bead by Mohammad Twam of Turquoise Mountain Palestine. I wear it every day with great hope for peace in the Middle East. Pippa has designed all colours, shapes, and sizes of glass beads that are blown in a workshop just outside Jerusalem in Jaba’.
There is also a favourite Tibetan Opal ring - Pippa’s speciality - that she designed with Sushil who works by hand in Jaipur, Rajasthan. Sushil is a master goldsmith, he and Pippa have a long relationship which is obvious in the wonderful pieces they create together.
Lastly, incredibly huge tumbled semi-precious aquamarine, chrysoprase, and chalcedony stones that Pippa strung years ago on coloured silks that I still adore wearing. Pippa’s pieces are like that – you put them on once, and somehow you never quite take them off.
Website: https://www.alexandrasimondetti.com/