Boucheron unveils rainbow high jewellery
The new high jewellery from Boucheron sees precious metals sprayed onto ceramics and rock crystal at high temperatures for holographic hues
Boucheron’s reputation for uniting technical mastery with thrilling avant-garde design is long established. Its winning collection for Best Technical Triumph in Wallpaper’s Design Awards 2021 saw the high jewellery house drift diamond clouds on a necklace of titanium mesh and envelop the heavenly material aerogel in rock crystal for a collection that looked to the skies for inspiration.
Now, Boucheron creative director Claire Choisne takes rainbows as her cue for prismatic new pieces that are inspired by the vivid colour experiments of both artist Olafur Eliasson and architect Luis Barragán. The new collection of high jewellery, comprising 25 pieces, subjects precious metals to high temperatures and sprays them onto ceramics and rock crystal, unleashing magical new hues.
Opalescent jewels play with unexpected motifs in shimmering hues. In one piece, a fish twirls over a sea of powdered opal, cradling a central opal that can be detached and worn as a brooch in true Boucheron style. In a necklace and a pair of earrings, opals paired with white diamonds form hypnotising waves surrounded by a mosaic of brilliantly coloured gems, making for coolly contemporary cocktail rings.
The natural world theme continues through to a bloom of surreal flowers, where peonies and pansies, crafted in white ceramic, are sprayed with a holographic coating. The resulting rings and brooches join other pieces created in Choisne’s favourite rock crystal, which take on a playfully dream-like quality – think bracelets and brooches set with holographic rock crystal and edged in diamonds. Arresting silhouettes characterise the ‘Laser’ set, which places pear-cut aquamarines into necklaces, earrings and a ring, enhancing them with pigmented ceramic and framing their forms in diamonds. Bold outlines are seen again in the ‘Holographique’ necklace, which joins a loop of octagonal sapphires with rock crystal and diamonds for a brilliant, otherworldly effect.
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Hannah Silver is the Art, Culture, Watches & Jewellery Editor of Wallpaper*. Since joining in 2019, she has overseen offbeat art trends and conducted in-depth profiles, as well as writing and commissioning extensively across the worlds of culture and luxury. She enjoys travelling, visiting artists' studios and viewing exhibitions around the world, and has interviewed artists and designers including Maggi Hambling, William Kentridge, Jonathan Anderson, Chantal Joffe, Lubaina Himid, Tilda Swinton and Mickalene Thomas.
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