Cliff Swain-Salomon - Spanish Lace

Description:  Spanish Lace

While on vacation in Madrid, one of the highlights of my trip was touring the Royal Palace.  Each room had its own theme and different materials were used to decorate the walls. One room was decorated with intricate ceramic walls, while the next was adorned with stone walls and Fresco ceilings, and after that, a room with hand-painted walls that looked like ornate wallpaper.  Each area was more magnificent than the last.  In the center of the Palace were the crown Jewels.  In one particular picture nearby, Queen Sofia was wearing a gorgeous tiara with jewels forming upside-down teardrops. Known as the “Cartier Loop Tiara,” it was originally created by Cartier for a nineteenth-century Spanish queen: Maria Cristina, the Austrian-born wife of King Alfonso XII wore it as her bridal tiara on her wedding day.  The shape of the tiara’s loops was so striking to me that…