ABOUT
US
Chantel Brennan-Martin
Chantel Brennan-Martin loves to create jewelry that is unique in both style and spirit. Her business, Piece of Peace, is not only aimed at adding beauty to people's lives, but adding peace to them as well. The energy of our peaceful thoughts becomes a world reality.
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Chantel first began making jewelry while living with a tribe of nomadic cattle herders, the Woddabbe, in the Sahel of West Africa. The nomads love to adorn themselves and spend the heat of the desert days under the scant shade of acacia trees beading their traditional pieces. Chantel learned from these people to take inspiration from nature, spirit and people of the past and present.
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A sailing adventure brought Chantel to the shores of this magnetic island, but it was the attraction to her Nevisian husband, Virgil Martin, that convinced her to stay. Virgil, AKA Lightnin', is also a jewelry artist (you can see his own bio, "Made by Lightnin'"), and they have three blessed children together.
Chantel continues to create jewelry that captures the beauty of the Caribbean, land and sea. She incorporates native materials such as seeds, shells and sea glass into her designs to share some of the local vibes with her customers world-wide. Every piece that Chantel creates is a unique design, embodied with a special spirit that captures the imagination of a particular person. But every piece has this in common: A peaceful energy that spreads as far and as wide as the people who wear them.
Made by Lightnin'
Lightnin' is a Nevisian, born and raised, he is a man of the earth, he is his children's papa, he is an artist. He is a person so absolutely unique and unpredictable that words are completely inadequate to describe him.
Yet here I am, his wife of ten years, trying to write his "bio." Maybe when I am 60 and our kids have grown, when I perhaps understand him in my maturity, I could write his bio - which would be chapters long, not paragraphs long. But for now this will suffice: A brief description of the artist who created your piece of jewelry.
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Lightnin's inspiration: The earth, his love of beauty and his ability to see it in places where others cannot. His world-view that is at once confined by limited travel and education, yet expansive through life experience, hardship and an ingrained knowledge carried through from his ancestors. His children inspire him.
An artist lives in Lightnin' that cannot be explained and is rarely appreciated. He built his house with his two hands, his saw, hammer, and mostly recycled and reclaimed materials collected throughout the island. Here his family dwells, safe and content. His yard is a cacophony of lush foliage, all edible or medicinal. The fences are all made from materials no one else would ever think to use: Fish-pot sticks and pieces of old pvc pipe.
Treasures from the beach adorn the house and yard and nothing is thrown away - just turned into something useful. Lightnin's jewelry expresses all of this in its own way - an order often emerging from the chaos, a pattern that is not at first apparent, colors that suddenly match - the pieces he creates are most often delicate, colorful and sensitive.
Lightnin' is completely unhindered by modern trends and even societal norms, he truly creates from within - tapping into his depths to produce unique pieces of jewelry that he chooses to share with others.
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