Results tagged “jewelry”

• Art Dico - A collection of illustrations from French dictionaries at the University Pierre-Mendès-France in Grenoble
• Mike's Electric Stuff - Including a very good collection of old and unusual vacuum tubes, from mercury rectifiers to little WWII acorn tubes.  Nicer presentation, but less material than the Virtual Valve Museum
• Biblical Criticism Online - An online and easy-to-use breakdown of the sources of the Old Testament narratives.

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I was prepared to be angry that the Kimberly Process isn't doing it's job of weeding out conflict diamonds with the decision not to suspend Zimbabwe, despite clear violations.  Then I happened upon a trailer for Ultimate Muscle Roller Legend, and all that was forgotten for the 1:49 of, to quote a great newsman of our day, the craziest f@#$%ing thing I've ever seen.


(perhaps not quite safe for work, there are jock-straps)
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A follow-up to a previous bit, here are some more designs seen in Solange Azagury-Partridge's NYC boutique.  From her "Random" collection comes the Heart of Gold duo.

While walking up Madison Ave, we chanced upon the Solange Azagury-Partridge boutique at 68th street.  She's a British jewelery designer who recently opened this boutique, her first in the US.  In the window were some examples of the "Platonic" line of mathematically inspired pieces, including the "Lonestar" earrings in one and two ball models.


(picture source)
That same set of wireframe solids appears, augmented with other shapes and a smaller star-ball, in more earrings, a overwrought necklace and a fantastic bracelet.

(Picture from her website)
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Source images are From Old Books' scans of Letters & Lettering: A Treatise With 200 Examples by Frank Chouteau Brown

In the continuing series of orphaned letters A.  This from Hans Holbein's A Dance of Death, 1523.  Image from From Old Books

More on the theme of animals in jewelry, this time from Dior Joallerie.

Idylle a Valparaíso bracelet.

Idylle Dans la Baie d'Along bracelet.

Idylle aux Fidji bracelet.
All designed by Victoire de Castellane

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I would never be so foolish as to claim that watch companies have a monopoly on arrogance, but I'd like to point out these three quotes.  All are from winners of the 2009 Couture Design awards that I have discussed before (Sevan Biçakçi, and Couture Design Awards), 2 in various Jewelry categories and one for watchmaking. 

Jewelry: Pearls

We won! Peter Schmid accepted the 2009 Couture Design Award for Best Pearl Jewelry in Las Vegas, United States on May 31, 2009. The Couture Design Awards, the signature event of the Couture Show, exists to recognize the world's most visionary designers, uncover new and emerging talent, and promote the appreciation of jewelry and timepiece design worldwide. Over 200 elite jewelers competed in this international competition, and Atelier Zobel is honored to have been selected for this prestigious award among so many talented artists and designers.

Thank you to all those who voted on-line as well as those who attended the Couture Show in Las Vegas this year and voted in person. We are truly grateful for your support. We look forward to seeing you next year, June 2nd to 7th, 2010.
[source]

Jewelry: Haute Couture

"I was so excited to win the Haute Couture award at this year's show. I have been a part of Couture for many years and receiving this prestigious award for the second time will inspire me to keep designing pieces that reflect the haute couture tradition. Winning this year was even more special because my dear friend Rachel Zoe presented the award to me! I look forward to many more years as a competitor in this category."
[source]

Timepiece

"It is appropriate for the Brand [Milus] to have been selected at this moment as we feel that all the key ingredients are in place increasing the aesthetic value. Even the economic situation has presented opportunities to improve our positioning within the pure Swiss universe. This was a very fortuitous moment and a great honor to win Best in Timepiece we thank Couture and our colleagues for their support."
[source]

I can't think of many examples of a award winner receiving their award with the phrase "It is appropriate for ...[us] to have been selected"

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Sevan Biçakçi is a jeweler out of istanbul who creates pieces, primarily rings, with a distinctive Turkish flair.  He won a 2009 Couture Design Award for his cufflinks in gold and silver with miniature paintings showing two views of Istanbul.   He was profiled in Fashion Trend Setter in 2007 after he won a few awards. In the current collection are various rings utilizing gems with faceted outsides and a small form, perhaps a building cut internally.  The most obvious of these designs is his "Hagia Sophia" ring, with the Roman church cut into the inside of a citrine.  The citrine is then set in gold, pave set with brown and white diamonds which form an inscription in old Turkish (translation unknown).  A second piece of a similar genre has a portrait of Mehmet the Conqueror in gold on the side of the shank and a small building of some sort cut into the white topaz of the main stone.

And one more from the same collection, less obviously "Turkish" than the rest, but I quite like the use of brown diamonds as color. The setting of cut stones upside-down is reminiscent of Renaissance diamond rings.

For his newest collection, Ida, Sevan has drawn from earlier periods of Turkish history with pieces drawing from the Greek era of Asia Minor. Mt. Ida is in the vicinity of ancient Troy, near the ancient city of Ephesus, cultic sanctuary of Artemis.

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Couture Design Awards - An set of awards given out annually for excellence in jewelry design.

• Stephen Webster's Jules Verne necklace, previously referenced, won for Diamonds
• Atelier Zobel won for a Conch pearl ring, a rarely seen gem (right)
• Yossi Harari won in haute couture for some unusual work with a polished, but not cut, fire opal (bottom)
• Elena Votsi won the best new designer with a standing spiral worked in 18k gold. (left)

[ All pictured from Couture 2009 Winners]

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In honor of the 60th Anniversary of Peanuts the Osaka branch of Takashimaya, a Japanese department store, has these for sale

[photo copyright Getty Images ]
and yes, the stones (5+ct of diamond) are real, and the price is 1.5million Yen.

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• Somewhat dull reporting and images from London's recent Jewelry Week
• Much more exciting, finally a name to go with some pictures of uncut diamond jewelry I photographed in Paris, it is the work of Patrice Fabre. 
  

• A fantastic watch blog, entirely in Hungarian.  Even not able to read a single word, the movement section provided a fantastic collection of photos.
• From the New York Times, a review of a contemporary furniture exhibit at the V&A, including the fantastic "Robber Baron" wardrobe. More information and some close-up shots of the detailed, if a bit disturbed, bronze castings available from Moss (below, closed from Moss, open from the V&A website)

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• Julien Breton is a French calligrapher specializing in elaborate scripts including Arabesque French, in the sprint of 2009, he put together a show in Nantes of his work done by moving light during a long exposure photograph. (image via flickr)
  
• Pablo Picasso did some similar work in 1948, including his famous Running Man, for photographer Gjon Mill and Life magazine

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Not quite enough to be a trend, but some interesting undersea-themed jewelry:


Photo courtesy of Stephen Webster
Stephen Webster's diamond necklace from his Jules Verne Collection. [via]

Autore doesn't have their Ocenia collection on their website, but Europa Star's new jewelry publication, International Jewelry has several more pictures, including a snail broach, a starfish pendent, soft coral earrings and this over-wrought harlequin shrimp.

Finally some of the work of the Place Vendome-based Lorenz Bäumer.
"Hippocamp"

"Oursin"
And his fantastic Murene undersea broach

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There was some debate a few months back about fractalness in design, but I think this necklace, designed by Marc Newson, by Boucheron can't be argued, it's a Julia set in gold, diamonds and sapphires.

(Image Copyright Xavier Reboud 2008) [via]

Boucheron is also famous as one of the over-the-top jewelers in with stores in the Place Vendome, Paris. Their "Question Mark" necklace in the form of a bird is a representitive sample

It springs from a more sedate design from the end of the 19th century.

This is their 150th anniversary year, and as such they've been doing some interesting collaborations with other luxery brands, including a unique watch with jewel wheels by Richard Mille. Some of the pieces.

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Apparently there's a battle brewing and no matter who looses, we win [via]

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for a Mr. T. Pain, due entirely to this. his $410k chain set with close to 200ct of "diamonds".  It may be bafflingly ugly, but....

The Italian jewelry/watch/stuff house of Bulgari is celebrating its 125th birthday with all sorts of events including their first ever retrospective at  Il Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome, Between History and Eternity: 1884-2009.  Besides the namesake jewelry brand, the Bulgari group owns the Gerald Genta and Daniel Roth watchmaking brands, but I doubt these will be on display.  There's what appears to be a press release available online.  The Purists has a series of photos with a much better press release, including about a half dozen of the jewels proper. 
   Bulgari has a special section of their website devoted to the 125th Anniversary stuff(Flash Heavy, content light, it's only a few pages mostly devoted to a Save the Children benefit silver ring) as well as a timeline of designs.  For much more unusual depictions of their designs the photographer Guido Mocafico did a series of shoots for them.
   Also in celebration of the anniversary year they have released 4 new watches as the Sotirio Bulgari collection.  Press release for this collection is also on the Purists, as well as a collection of live shots of them. The four models are a Tourbillon QP, an Annual Calendar, a retrograde date and a simple time/date model in an officer-style case(much like the Patek 5015). 

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•  Todd Reed - Another jeweler turned up in the hunt for raw diamond jewelry.  He has an assortment of cufflinks that seem to work well with the material, but falls into a common trap, displaying cufflinks raw which doesn't reflect what they'd actually look like on a cuff!
• Glycine iPhone App - For all the people who say "I don't need a watch, I've got my cell-phone"

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Things that predate the log, but are worth mentioning

• Guido Mocafico - fantastic photographer of "things".  The fruit and jewelry series deserves special attention.  For those of a horological bent, his Movement is a lovely book of watch-movement photos.