For such a progressive and experimental form, there are many aspects of the decorative art of jewelry that haven't changed for centuries. Sure, our new survey, The Jewelry Book, includes some practitioners who use 3D printing and computer-aided design techniques to create some truly impressive works, but there are many others that look back, rather than forward, through their jeweler’s loupe.
Consider, for example, the German jeweler Hemmerle, which is renowned for its many artisan techniques combining rare artifacts and stones with unorthodox materials such as wood, iron, and steel.
Hemmerle, est. Munich, Germany, 1893. Image credit: hemmerle.com (page 133) One-of-a-kind bracelet in iron and white gold set with a diamond weighing more than 16 carats, 2023
“The company began as a goldsmith house with a specialty of providing medals of honor and gem-set adornments for the Bavarian court, and over the years its focus evolved into one of highly stylized modernist minimalism,” explains our new book. “Their signature approach requires that each Hemmerle creation is made by a single skilled craftsman who will often devote hundreds of hours to producing one piece.’
This entry is illustrated with a 2023 one-of-a-kind bracelet in iron and white gold, set with a diamond of more than 16 carats. But why pair so lowly a metal with so precious a stone? Well, as the book explains, “in Prussia, iron replaced gold from 1813 to 1815 when the royal family requested the donation of gold and silver jewelry to fund the War of Liberation to fight Napoleon.
Berlin iron jewelry, which had originated in the Royal Prussian Iron Foundry a decade earlier, caught on and went from being an emblem of mourning to one of patriotism and resistance. Early pieces were even proudly stamped with the phrase ‘I gave gold for iron,’ in German. Still today the German style is darker.”
Albion Art, est. Tokyo, Japan, 1985. Image credit: Courtesy Albion Art. Hellenistic granulation and filigree gold earrings from ancient Greece, 4th century BCE, part of the Albion Art collection.
Other practitioners draw their timelines back even further. The Alibion Art collection is a vast array of historic Western jewelry, spanning from ancient times to the twentieth century, founded by Japanese collector Kazumi Arikawa in 1985.
“Arikawa’s belief in the power of beauty as a beacon of spiritual enlightenment underpins Albion Art’s collecting philosophy,” explains our book. “The distinctive approach is the result of both his background as a Buddhist monk and his early career working in his mother’s jewelry business.
However, it was not until he saw masterpieces of historic jewelry at the Victoria and Albert Museum during a visit to London in 1982 that he decided to abandon the commercial jewelry market and focus instead on handling only the finest and rarest historic pieces. Arikawa seeks to showcase the talismanic, purifying, and uplifting properties of jewels across generations of owners.”
A pair of remarkably detailed Hellenistic granulation and filigree gold earrings from ancient Greece, 4th century BCE illustrate this entry, showing detailed, expressive jewelry’s unbroken path from the Bronze Age.
Nikos Koulis. Photograph by Yiannis Bournias. Image credit: Courtesy Nikkos Koulis. ME Collection one-of-a-kind necklace with 9.13 carats of pear-shaped white diamonds set in brushed yellow gold, 2024.
Greek jeweler, Nikos Koulis, brings those Classical allusions up to date in his work. “Greek mythology and classical art, architecture, and sculpture have all inspired his designs, but modernity is his modus operandi,” says our book. “Koulis’s Athenian workshop patented the use of black enamel for his Art Deco–influenced designs, an innovation that in 2016 won him the first of four Couture Design Awards.
He has suspended diamonds in translucent enamel, wound them among gold wire, and juxtaposed them with sinuous snake chains for the 2019 Feelings collection. His 2023 ME series [see the pictured necklace] explored the contrast between the cool, industrial masculinity of aluminum and the glamour of diamonds and gemstones.”
Jewelbot Blue rendering, 2021. Illustration by Michael Robinson.Image credit: David Michael Jewels.
New Zealander, Michael Robinson, takes an opposing approach; he grapples with contemporary life, using positively old-fashioned techniques. “Robinson—who makes fewer than ten jewels a year by hand—the human touch is a sacred, irreplaceable element of the design process,” says the book. “Born and raised in the dramatic and mountainous New Zealand landscape, Robinson found metalsmithing by chance and taught himself in a lifelong process of experimentation. He has no shop and there is no automation. Robinson makes every element of every jewel himself from his current base in Boston,” the text in our book reads.
“At the start of each creation, meticulous watercolor renderings are a bridge from past to future. Robinson tells the story of his life through each piece, expressing deeply held emotions and capturing past moments of intense happiness. His work is bedecked in gemstones and bursting with color, but it was his attempt to tame the idiosyncrasies of titanium that made him think differently about metal and the techniques he uses to fuse his vision to reality.
From his seclusion at the bench, he sees a future filled with artificially intelligent overlords attempting to understand the magic and soul of jewelry and has started designing pieces for them to wear when they take over the world.”
To discover more about Robinson and co, and to see many more beautiful works, get a copy of The Jewelry Book here..
