From the first moment I saw a photo of Swarovski's amazing NL, with its 'pinched', 'waisted' tubes, I knew I had seen that shape before. But where? This has been bugging me ever since.
And then the memories came flooding back. In the deep south of France (and probably all over France) in the beautiful Languedoc, in the early morning, you can see people walking around carrying different loads in their hands, shopping bags, brief cases, sheafs of newspapers and so on, but tucked under their arms, and held in place by arm pressure only, was a baguette.
Baguettes are a gorgeous bread loaf but is shaped long and narrow, much like a person's arm. When buying groceries and bread from the canal boat shop in Le Somail, I too walked back to our gite carrying our daily baguette in this same way (baguettes are best eaten fresh) and, by the time I got back, after juggling with other shopping, unlocking, opening and locking the gite door, then making my way upstairs to our accommodation, and all the time gripping the baguette with my arm so it didn't fall, it was pinched where my arm had squashed it.
On the long, ancient wooden table, where we ate (unless we sat outside on the balcony) there it was: a long, narrow shape with this 'waist' in the middle.
And by golly if you picked the baguette up by this squashed section, your hand fitted around it very comfortably.
So there it is, the inspiration for the shape of NL.
Possibly.
Lee
The pic is of our gite.
And then the memories came flooding back. In the deep south of France (and probably all over France) in the beautiful Languedoc, in the early morning, you can see people walking around carrying different loads in their hands, shopping bags, brief cases, sheafs of newspapers and so on, but tucked under their arms, and held in place by arm pressure only, was a baguette.
Baguettes are a gorgeous bread loaf but is shaped long and narrow, much like a person's arm. When buying groceries and bread from the canal boat shop in Le Somail, I too walked back to our gite carrying our daily baguette in this same way (baguettes are best eaten fresh) and, by the time I got back, after juggling with other shopping, unlocking, opening and locking the gite door, then making my way upstairs to our accommodation, and all the time gripping the baguette with my arm so it didn't fall, it was pinched where my arm had squashed it.
On the long, ancient wooden table, where we ate (unless we sat outside on the balcony) there it was: a long, narrow shape with this 'waist' in the middle.
And by golly if you picked the baguette up by this squashed section, your hand fitted around it very comfortably.
So there it is, the inspiration for the shape of NL.
Possibly.
Lee
The pic is of our gite.
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