Valérie Danenberg* comes to the world of jewelry honestly, her father is an art dealer and her mother sells antique jewelry in the Louvre des Antiquaires in Paris. After getting a diploma from the Institut National de Gemmologie, and spending 20 years selling antique jewelry, she has recently opened a boutique on the Left Bank selling her own designs.
From this initial collection come a pair of pieces entitled "Beauty and the Beast" (oddly enough the press release has the name in English, despite the text being entirely French otherwise). The ring is yellow gold set with rubies, diamonds and tzavorites (a type of bright green Garnet), while the necklace is rose gold and silver set with tzavorites(the eyes) and garnets (the dark-red of the antlers). Frankly the necklace looks like a prop from some sort of Deal-with-the-Devil movie, but perhaps that's just me...it might look less malevolent on someone.
 |  |
The rest of the collection consists of three pairs of earrings. The so-called Monnaie du Pape (Pope's Money) and Summer Dream consist of the same filigree pattern overlaid on a semi-precious background, mother-of-pearl in the case of the Pope, turquoise for Summer. The use of the design, offcentered and asymmetrically cut off is quite interesting, though the names seem to have little relation to the design. The final pair is a nameless feather design, quite reminiscent of Art deco designs such as Boucheron (see a feather design) or more probably Lalique, as Valérie's mother collects their work.
| Monnaie du Pape | Summer Dream |
|---|---|
 |  |
 |
( source )
A
* Her website seems to be down for a redesign at the moment
Leave a comment