In her nine years as creative director of Boucheron, Claire Choisne has undercut exquisite jewels with a sharp technicality. Her latest high jewellery collection, Contemplation, builds on this history, translating her preoccupation with realism and natural motifs into fluid high jewellery which takes on a life of its own. The 67 pieces in the collection were inspired by a holiday at Choisne’s Portugal home; with natural motifs reflecting the respite she found in nature. By crafting feathers, hydrangeas, ferns and wheat in precious materials, Choisne gives shape to the intangible.
The collection is characterised by highly technical artistry. Heavenly materials appear to be pulled, magically, from the sky – in one necklace, aerogel is enveloped in heavy rock crystal and hangs from a necklace. One of the lightest solid materials in existence and used by Nasa to gather stardust, its lightness and fragility is belied by its milky blue hue. In another piece, diamond clouds drift on a necklace of titanium mesh, the sky tattooed with lacquer which is applied using an airbrush. Choisne returns to the lightness of clouds again in a delicate choker, where diamonds and glass beads tremble on titanium threads, enveloping the neck in a mist of precious gems. Here, the ‘Battement d’Ailes’ choker also looks to the heavens, its diamond-set wings ready to take flight. Inspired by the sculpted silhouette of a diadem from 1906, it embellishes its curves with a double row of feathers in intricately engraved mother-of-pearl. §