One gray autumn morning, on the way to her first class at the Sorbonne, a pale and beautiful Jessica Ruffie pauses for a cup of coffee and a cigarette.  The momentous occasion of University Commencement leads her to reflect on the lives of her aunts, uncles and grand-parents who, throughout her youth, had passed through the rambling apartment in the 18th Arrondissement in which she grew up, like a parade of colorful rare birds. Thus, instead of proceeding to the awaiting class, she has another coffee... and buys a flight to Mexico to her Aunt Tallaly, to begin her own idea of an education.  From a childhood littered with pearls, Jess has an innate eye for their quality.  But in Mexico and later Florida with Jean and Wendy, she learns the basics of how to drill and knot the pearl onto specially prepared leather, creating the finely engineered jewelry for which she is known today.  In St. Barth she works alongside her mother Mary selling the creations of her Grand-mother Maryvonne.  With gratitude, she comes to know the client; the Dreamers, Romantics, and Rebels who enable and promote the wonderful life of her family.  Among the steady flow of clients, are two brothers.  The younger Max is sailing around the world; a plan she decides to help him put on indefinite hold.  It is a time to create, to put down roots.  TerreMerLove is born, followed shortly after by a girl Saba, and a boy Paco.  They live mostly on a remote outcropping of stone in the Northern Atlantic and for several months of the year re-enter normal society on Maui or Saint Barth, or wherever they are invited.

That Lucas Ruffie had the mischance to perfect his jiu jitsu training on the rough streets of Paris' red light district may come as a surprise as he drapes a Tahitian pearl necklace (of his own design) around one's discerning shoulders while offering a subtle critique of a rare oyster.  But the Parisian Pirate is full of surprises.  He won't tell you that he gave up a basketball career to star in his first lead role in a film.  With the success of his performance, and the arrival of offers from agents and directors, he disappeared from Paris.  He disappeared from his street life hangouts, and from his musician and street artist friends.  When he reappeared it was in the shallow shade of a straw hat that he wore to grow rare flowers in the unrelenting power of the Caribbean sun.  In his broad experience he has cheated death by a millimeter, knows where to find a cache of buried Mayan Gold, and feels confident that he could earn a living from playing blackjack.  Like most things he has learned, he learned how to construct jewelry with speed and ease.  While his sister's pieces are notable for their grace and intricate construction, Lucas' creations are notable for their power and use of color and raw emotion.  Like his life, his creations are full of surprises and an unabated passion for living.  Lucas, Tessa and their son Kajïk divide their time between a balcony overlooking shipwrecks in the Caribbean, and a yellow shuttered townhouse covered with roses on a remote promontory in Northern France.  

Scottish Hawaiian surfer, high fashion photographer, father extraordinaire and so much more, Max is the lovely life partner of Jessica. He and his photographs bring a certain playfulness to the TerreMer team that is greatly appreciated. His ability to capture the simple beauty of something or someone is what makes his work so special. A simple pearl, in the right light can become an orbe of lustre with a tale of romance shining through it. Surrounded by his favorite subjects, Jessica, Saba, and Paco he continues to capture the love that exudes.

The daughter of noble pirates, now the wife of one, and most certainly the mother of one, this tall blue-eyed mermaid was educated not in the classroom but in the colorful world of her parents.  Tessa learned how to weave and dye cloth in her mother's Caribbean studio filled with silk and rare fabric and steaming cups of spiced tea.  Her father taught her the art of casting gold and silver, how to carve whalebone, and to distill rum. Instead of going to model in New York at seventeen, she stayed on her tropical island and made colorful beaded jewelry.  Using the alchemy of dance learned in a reggae dance hall lit by a single neon bulb, Tessa enthralled and drew her darling Lucas from the tropics to the surf-beaten granite cliffs of Cornuaille.  Tessa cooks a bewitching curry, and writes with a beauty beyond her age.  You will receive her literature when you contact us.