Founded in Milan in 1919, Buccellati continues to carve its way into the hearts of wearable-art aficionados.The Rigato engraving technique, featuring handcarved fine lines, combined with the Openwork method (which creates a lace-like effect on metal) lends Buccellati’s sculptural pieces their distinctive appearance. The Macri Collection is a case in point. Designed by founder Mario Buccellati’s son, Gianmaria, the range of cuffs, rings and earrings embraces traditional methods, many of which take years to perfect. The result is a collection of sculptural, gold lust-haves with a distinctive satin finish, beautifully and boldly studded with diamonds.
Rare find
Once again, Graff brings nature-inspired beauty to the fore with its Triple Pavé Butterfly necklace, all 18.14 carats of it. The brand is vocal about its love of natural form and the butterfly is a favourite motif, both because of its lucky-charm qualities and its ethereal and luminescent natural beauty. The collection features glittering clusters of pink, yellow and white diamonds beautifully matched with rubies, sapphires and emeralds, while the Butterfly necklace itself is a confection of rare pink and white diamonds, sure to make its final owner blush with pride.
Flutter buy
In the quest to create jewellery with a unique point of difference, the world’s best designers are using increasingly more intricate and cleverly engineered elements in their work. These earrings by German design house Hemmerle feature 10 pink conch pearls (the rarest variety in the world) and a series of magnificent pink spinels in varying colours, set in white gold and copper. The earrings are constructed as if to flutter as the wearer moves, providing mesmerising viewing pleasure.
Colour burst
New techniques are coupled with Baroque-inspired designs in Swiss company De Grisogono’s jawdropping Melody of Colours ring from their latest collection. This piece reflects the consistent lengths the company’s designers take to go bigger and bolder with their diamond and precious stone marriages, using complex settings and techniques to create showpieces that demand attention. Here, no less than 107 diamonds are placed alongside six spectacular pink sapphires and nine smoked-quartz gems in a pink-gold setting.
Inner light
Luster is the amount of light a pearl reflects from both its surface glow and the deep mirror-like reflection of its inner luminosity. The better the nacre quality of the pearl, the more superior its luster. The Mikimoto flower rings, with the most luminous luster, are each a tiny cosmos symbolising the seaons. This one, with delicate cherry blossoms and plump buds, depicts the antipation of spring with 18-karat white gold, conch pearl, ayoka cultured pearl, sapphire, garnet, diamond and quartz.
This article originally appeared in Issue 41 of Private Edition.
For more Justine Hewitt