Results tagged “jewelry”

They're not the original to the core of Christianity in the way they've become, only coming into play in the 5th century and appearing in their common form in the 6th, but the Seven Deadly Sins are firmly rooted in popular culture, from Dante's Inferno to the movie Seven.  Stephen Webster(previously mentioned), who fancies himself something of a bad-boy when it comes to jewelry design, released a collection of rings on the theme late last year.

Envy, in the classic green

Gluttony, kind of a disturbing piece with your finger always going into, and out of, the grimacing teeth

Greed, using more metal then embelishments

Lust

Pride in full peacock splendor

A stone reclining on a ottoman of Sloth

Hands clenched at the throat of Wrath

Though all the designs may not be to my taste, these are impeccably executed and show a cleverness of design that, for most of them, is not at the expense of function. I can think of many contemporary designers who could have taken these concepts and done them neither so artfully nor with such technical skill.

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Delfina Delettrez (previously mentioned) is a young somewhat avant-garde jeweler working in Paris, and she's released some new pieces for 2011. I was not a fan of many of her recent works, but these are more interesting rather then just intentionally shocking, and I am liking them more. The display models for the first earrings and necklace betray her former style

Collier necklace in gilded silver set with 2 large baroque pearls	"Roll-in-stone" earpiece in gold and pearl

Maintaining her interest in non-standard subjects, though returning from the absurd (skeletonized Michael Jackson,for eg), is this beehive necklace, with amber set in a silver hive and small worker bees.

The earrings and matching bracelet use the rather simple construction of the gimbel to create an interesting articulated design, with a pair of large irregular pearls set in the earrings

"Concentric Rings" earrings, set with large Tahitian pearls	Tourbillon (whirlwind) bracelet in silver

If you're interested, Paris Joaillerie has two short articles on her works in their back archives, from October 2008 and March 2008

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Several months back a local jeweler hosted a display of French artisan jewelers.  Since they forbade photography there, I was unable to provide anything in the way of images from the event, but I've been tracking down some secondary information on the brands on display.  Here's the first, Marchak.

The original Marchak was founded in 1878 in Kiev by Joseph Marchak, and by the revolution had nearly 150 employees. Like many industries catering to the upper class, they left and by the mid 1920s has reopened on the Rue de la Paix in Paris. The brand grew and prospered through the mid 20th century, but faltered, and finally shut down in 1987 after the death of the Jacques Verger, the head designer.

In 2003 the dependents of Joseph, some still bearing the Marchak name, re-trademarked it and began working towards a reborn Marchak. A few years back they released a collection of animal-themed broaches, interesting but quite traditional in look. The following three butterfly's and octopus give a good sampling of their work. The use of unusually shaped stones for the butterfly wings is quite interesting, though somewhat common in Amber, like on the Isadora Ambre.

Isadore: Materials unknown	Isadore Ambre: Chrysoprase and amber
Flamboyant: Diamonds, sapphires and tourmalines set in white gold	Octopus: Diamonds, sapphires, acquamarine and a large Baroque pearl set in white gold

Nature, and animals in particular, play an important role in Marchak's collection, of the 7 pieces featured on their website at the moment, 5 are animals. The color gradient, as seen in the blue stones of the octopus, is a theme that they will continue using in their newer pieces.

From their newer pieces, some of which I've seen on display, there are a few worth noticing. Like many of the reborn watch companies, the new Marchak is trying to emphasize their connections to the historical company. One example of this is the Douze Mois (Twelve Months) collection, named after a play written by a cousin, Samuel Marchak, in 1960. This collection of twelve rings, in lacquer and diamonds set in gold,are the same, but for the hue of the lacquer, each one attempting to represent a specific month. The collection is presented in a box in a traditional Russian lacquer style, from the village of Palekh.

Drawing from the animal world again is a the Princess Grenouille (Princess Frog) in moonstone, spinel, chrysophrase, garnet, sapphire, emerald and diamonds (phew). This sort of lifelike small animal sculpture was very popular in late Czarist Russia, Faberge did a celebrated collection for Edward the VII.

The final piece is, I think, a fantastic use of an usual material for jewelry. This bear's head pin is in gold, diamonds sapphires and mink. It may not be the best example of craftsmanship in their collection, but was, at the exhibit, the most looked at and admired. A pity it retails for approx. 5,000€

(Picture sources: the first 4, the next 3)

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Another of the strange jewelers of Paris, this time working in a very Post-Modernist style, is Baptiste Monvoisin (who's name translates roughly to "My Neighbor").  He is primarily a metalworker, with stones being a rare addition, usually highlighting the gold or silver design.  Some of his works clearly take aim at the common tropes of jewelry, like the brilliant-cut diamond, such as the Pop-Art or Diamond rings below

Pop-Art ring in yellow and white gold and black diamonds	Diamond ring in silver

Others show a strange dental interest, such as the Molar ring, or the broach in the form of chewed chewing-gum.

Molar ring in yellow gold	Chewing-Gum broach in pink gold

Using Hipster "Irony" as source he has taken the inexplicably popular trend of intentionally-pixelated art to its logical conclusion is the "Pixel" ring in sand-blasted gold, quite an interesting surface treatment. Along with that is the Mustache cufflink in white gold.

Pixel	Mustache

He has some other interesting pieces, including a hand-grenade based on a large Tahitian pearl and a hospital-bracelet rendered in pale yellow gold, but one of the more amusing pieces, conceptually, is this ring, the Bijoux de Famille in yellow gold

All pictures are from his website.

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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

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* Her website seems to be down for a redesign at the moment

For the spring/summer of 2011, Boucheron (frequently mentioned before) has another collection of animal themed pieces, the Cabinet of Curiosities. With one exception, these are more common animals then the frogs, snails and elephants that have populated their recent works. This exception is the secret watch, named Khepri, which consists of a scarab(duh) with wings of engraved Lapis Lazuli, emerald eyes and an onyx head.  The bracelet and rest of the main section is covered with white diamonds.

Besides that piece, and a sea-shell shaped broach, called Cyprus, in multi-colored sapphires, diamonds and large white pearls, the rest of the collection are rings.

Of the rings, I think the most interesting are "Nuri" and "Nutkin" (seriously), seen below. Both are done in white gold set with white diamonds and multi-colored sapphires. The parrot has a 4.5 ct blue sapphire as a central stone.

Nuri	Nutkin

In white gold are also the rings "Pegasus" and "Cyprus". The horse is set with blue and violet sapphires and white diamonds, while the bird is mostly black sapphires with a few diamond accents

Pegasus	Cyprus

The final two rings are not in white gold. "Jamal" is a camel, done in yellow gold, with a >6ct Madagascar sapphire for his hump. The "Flamingo" is in rose gold, set with red and black sapphires as well as diamonds

Jamal	Flamingo

All in all not a bad collection, and the squirrel and camel (especially that odd little smile) add a nice touch of humor, but nothing really interesting or new...

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Chanel has announced some new jewelry pieces for their Spring 2011 collection, the Secrets of the Orient.  Like everything they seem to produce, this comes "from the universe of Madmoiselle Chanel", in this case from her collection of Oriental folding screens.  In total 28 pieces in 7 themes represent "the Oriental civilizations of Persia and Russia via Venice and Isfahan"

First we have a pair of Persian pieces, a bracelet and a pair of earrings. Though unmarked on the press release, I believe these pieces are tourmaline (pink and green) as well as emeralds and diamonds set in 18kt yellow gold.

Another matched pair are these Mosaic pieces, a necklace, and an interestinly assymetric pair of earrings. The pieces are white gold, set with rubies, pearls, emeralds and either pink sapphires or tourmalines.

Finally a pair in white gold and diamonds (white and fancy). The broach is named Camélia Dentelle (Camelia lace), and set with a single large pearl, while the necklace is simply named Venetian. I can't help but see the broach as "the worlds most expensive pasty"

( all pictures from Paris Joaillerie )

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The Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum (that's the full name, don't wear it out) is hosting an exhibition of Van Cleef and Arpels jewelry, watches and other objects d'art from February 18 through June 5, 2011. 

Amoung the pieces on display are displays of dazzling technique, such as this gold box in semi-precious and precious stones from 1926(Left) and a Camargo broach, in platinum set with diamonds, rubies and emeralds from 1942 (Right).  For the simply dazzling, it's hard to beat a platinum and gold diadem, set with diamonds for Princess Grace, from 1976 (Below)

My favorite piece from the promotional pictures is this bell-push, set with an enameled gold and silver boat(1908). The body is ebony while the massive wave is carved from a single piece of jasper.

An interesting pair of broaches are also on display. One is recent, from 2004, a Japanese-inspired butterfly (Right). The wings are wood with Maki-e laquer, a Japanese technique for layering lacquer with gold dust, and the body is gold set with diamonds. The other is from 1971, a bird-shaped broach in gold carrying a 95ct briolette-cut fancy yellow diamond and set with sapphires and more diamonds. It was once owned by Ganna Walska

There are plenty more pieces in the exhibit that I may post later on
(Pictures from Paris Joaillerie, except the bird broach from the CH website)
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