Waves, waterfalls, glaciers, icebergs, and swells. Raw states of water—as seen in Iceland by Boucheron Creative Director, Claire Choisne—form into extravagant jewels. Innovative jewels. Full-body jewels. Elementally wild jewels.
Nature gets frozen in the twenty-six High Jewelry creations of the “Or Bleu”, or “Blue Gold” collection. German landscape photographer Jan Erik Waider travelled with Choisne, to capture her direct inspirations.
The seriously statement-making shoulder brooch Eau Vive, for example, required almost a thousand hours of craftsmanship to reproduce the force of Icelandic water surging over shoulders. Designed with 3D software to mimic the appearance of crashing waves, they were sculpted from a single rectangular block of aluminum—eight times lighter than gold—then immersed in a palladium bath for deep shine. Set diamonds add water’s light refractions. Incredibly weightless, the shoulder brooches secure with a simple magnetic attach.
Icicles become aquamarines and hexagons of frosted rock crystal. An ice floe translates into veined grand antique marble. Black water is expressed in obsidian. Water, everywhere and nowhere, gets a wearable portrait made of metal, rock and stone.