A masters graduate of the Pforzeim Goldsmith and Watchmaker School, German-born Sabine Roemer has trained, worked and exhibited in Germany, Austria, Greece, Australia and the United Kingdom.
A winner of numerous awards for her technical craftsmanship, Sabine’s work has included projects as diverse as the “Art as a Jewellery Object” exhibition for Germany’s All About Art festival, and a collaboration with Bijoux creating custom pieces for the Formula One championships. Now London-based, she has apprenticed under leading British jeweler Stephen Webster and currently works for David Marshall, known for the bold yet refined aesthetic of his diamond and colored gem-set platinum pieces. David sponsored Sabine’s award-winning ring.
Sabine Roemer’s ring was inspired by the vivid blooms of a blue-violet wreath flower which, like tanzanite, is unique to the country of Tanzania. Sabine wanted to combine these two gifts of nature into a piece that is both organic and refined.
This internationally renowned designer from Santa Catarina in southern Brazil is known for the grace and movement of her museum-quality creations.
Inspired by both a long-standing love of art and the irrepressible array of color and form in the gemstones of her native Brazil, Ruth Grieco’s 25 year-old family business continues to evolve, guided primarily by an instinctive understanding of women’s love for jewelry that combines wearability with outstanding beauty. Ruth Grieco designs have graced the covers of countless international publications and have been featured in books and exhibitions in both the art and jewelry worlds.
Ruth Grieco has created a captivating, versatile piece which like many of her designs can adorn the body in different ways, here being both a brooch and a necklace. For Ruth, tanzanite’s changing blue-violet hues capture the mystery of maternity, and her piece is a magnificent celebration of tanzanite’s spectrum of colors. The detachable tanzanite drop lends movement, whilst the elongating effect of the diamond leaf forms give the piece a grace and fluidity, allowing it to fall perfectly whichever way it is worn.
A graduate of the internationally acclaimed Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, James Powell is now serving his apprenticeship at TCJ Designs, a studio in the historic English town of York. This independent design workshop combines a strong tradition of craftsmanship with innovative techniques to create sought-after bespoke pieces.
Delicate and richly detailed, James Powell’s design evokes the traditional motif of a stork delivering a baby.
But instead of a stork, James has created two exotic, ethereal hummingbirds that hover watchfully above their precious cargo. A stunning tanzanite drop represents newborn baby, and the cherished gift of new life.
Known for the elegant refinement of her collections, Maria Canale is a designer and consultant for an array of leading jewelry brands in the United States and across the world. Maria began her career in jewelry as an after-school apprentice at age 13.
She majored in Metalsmithing at the School of American Craftsmen and began designing professionally at 21. She now teaches Jewelry Design at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. For Maria, the most important element of design is to create truly special pieces that will become favorites, enhancing the wearer’s confidence and beauty every time it is worn. She created her winning design for Suna Brothers, a family company with a sixty year heritage, known for its skill and expertise in platinum and fine gemstones and the outstanding quality of the fine jewelry it creates.
As with many of her designs, Maria Canale drew on nature’s inspirations for this pendant. The beauty of the changing seasons is captured in the opaque backdrop of a frozen lake, re-created through the innovative use of a circular optical lens. Graceful etchings depict fallen leaves trapped just beneath the water’s surface, whilst a dazzling tanzanite in deepest blue rises through the ice as a symbol of vitality and new life. When worn, the lake’s diamond circle is anchored to the necklace through a delicate chain of leaves, but the tanzanite appears to float, suspended gracefully against the skin.
Cairo-based designer Dima has made her name with an aesthetic that draws heavily on her Egyptian heritage and the raw sensuality of the East.
She travels the world, handpicking rare gemstones for her jewelry, and in each collection, spiritual inspirations find expression in her signature rich, earthy style.
With her mainline collection retailing in London, New York, Los Angeles, Kuwait and Cairo, Dima has recently created a new jewelry line for London-based fashion designer Giles Deacon, in which she debuts bolder, more structured forms.
Dima’s work is characterized by her instinctive blending of cultural styles and faith symbols. In these hoop earrings, crafted in Egyptian beaten gold, she intertwines the story of the Maasai’s traditional affinity with blue as the color of fertility with the biblical depiction of the snake in the Garden of Eden. As the snake coils sensually around the hoop, the tanzanite drops from its mouth, symbolizing the fruit of temptation.
Zoltan David’s precise yet artistic approach to jewelry design combines cutting-edge technological innovation with an illustrious tradition of world-class workmanship. Zoltan is the founder of the Dancing Metal Studios in Texas, home to fellow European-trained goldsmiths.
Here, they apply their time-honored craft in the creation of award-winning, hand-forged pieces that employ the finest techniques, gemstones and metals.
In Zoltan David’s winning necklace, flawless technical craftsmanship brings to life a richly detailed, timeless design. Zoltan’s “Flowerfly” captures the vitality of a flower in full bloom. The signature metal ornamentation technique that is Zoltan’s patented creation adds depth and texture to the wings and petals that flank a rare and spectacular matching pair of trilliant cut tanzanites.
Rodrigo Robson exploded onto Brazil’s jewelry scene in the year 2000, and since then his dazzling pieces have won international accolades. The drama and exuberance of his jewelry designs, each one telling its own specific story, are befitting of an artist whose creative roots lie in the theatre, music and professional dance.
Consolidating his position at the forefront of progressive jewelry making, Rodrigo now teaches in Sao Paolo’s Experimental Atelier of Jewelry Design.
Entitled “Start,” Rodrigo Robson’s necklace is a bold, contemporary exploration of the Be Born to Tanzaniteä theme. Highly innovative and original, Rodrigo’s design features real ultrasound film to portray in a modern, literal form the ever-inspiring miracle of new life. His circular links evoke the unbreakable bond between mother and child, whilst tanzanite, the precious gemstone of the present generation, perfectly completes this youthful celebration of birth.
Regarded as one of the most accomplished and ground breaking British brands in the international arena, Stephen Webster has boutiques in London, Seoul and Moscow with over 60 concessions in the United States, Hong Kong and Japan.
Always setting trends rather than following them, Stephen’s design aesthetic is bold, sexy and instantly recognizable. Despite the contemporary look and feel of his collections, Stephen’s 30 years in the jewelry trade have been characterized by a strong regard for traditional craft values. Universally acknowledged as the fine jeweler to the stars, Stephen’s glittering clientele includes Christina Aguillera, Kate Moss and Madonna.
Best known for his striking designs that bring out the fire in unique and exotic stones, Stephen Webster needed no greater inspiration than this 29 carat heart shaped tanzanite in deepest midnight blue with flashes of red. With Stephen’s signature edgy, contemporary touch, the traditional symbol of love becomes a show-stopping statement of passion. Highly stylized scrollwork set with diamonds give this classic cut a look that is spectacularly rock ‘n’ roll.
From a family of renowned fashion and jewelry designers, Ginny Dizon grew up immersed in couture.
She soon developed a fascination with gemstones and their myriad hues, forms and finishes, from the beckoning fire of the facetted to the soft, alluring shimmer of cabochons. In addition to creating and selling unique one-of-a-kind pieces, Ginny also specializes in bespoke jewelry, transforming her clients’ old gems and timeworn pieces into new favorites that are functional, imaginative and innovative.
In creating her cuff bracelet, Ginny Dizon drew her inspiration from the Maasai legend of tanzanite’s discovery, where a bolt of lightning set the land ablaze, transforming crystals on the ground into shimmering blue-violet gemstones. When the last cinders dissolved into the earth, awestruck Maasai tribesmen filled their pouches with the extraordinary gems, intuitively knowing that they would bring about a better life. Ginny’s cuff bracelet captures the drama of the lightning, whilst her use of both rough and facetted tanzanite symbolizes the journey each stone takes from its raw state in the earth to its final polished perfection. In Ginny’s interpretation, the theme “Be Born to Tanzaniteä” becomes a story of discovery, and a celebration of the natural miracle of this rare and elusive gem.
Colin Waylett began his career in fine jewelry design at the Medway College of Art and Design in Rochester, England.
He subsequently moved to Alicante in Spain, where he set up a workshop with his two brothers, steadily evolving a business creating one-of-a-kind pieces. In 1989, he founded the Colin Waylett School of Jewellery and Gemmology, and now has his own gallery. His work combines classical mounting with more experimental techniques, and he uses both polished and textured finishes for a refined and elegant feel. Colin works in yellow, white, red and green 18k gold as well as titanium, niobium or a mixture of metals in the ancient Japanese “Mokume Gane” tradition.
Colin Waylett’s stunning arm cuff is evocative of the noble traditions of Tanzania’s proud Maasai people. The interlocking shields represent the unity of warrior tribemen returning at sunset from a hunt against a blue and golden sky. The glinting of the last drops of sunlight catching the tips of the tribesmen’s spears is captured in the cuff’s diamond tips.
Laurence Ratinaud creates unique jewelry designs for several workshops in Paris’s famous Place Vendôme, home to some of the world’s most prestigious jewelry houses.
Laurence is passionate about materials, pushing the boundaries of how metals can be worked to create unusual forms and shapes. Porcelain and enamel bring rich textural variety to her designs, which have been showcased in Switzerland, France, Hong Kong, Japan and Thailand.
Laurence Ratinaud’s unique ring was inspired by the creation of life before birth. White gold is elegantly crafted into a mesh egg shape representing conception. It holds and protecting within it a simple tanzanite oval that signifies life itself. Laurence’s piece symbolizes both the simplicity and its fragility of the seed of new life, showing how something that becomes so infinitely complex can at its earliest moments be held in the palm of the hand.
Finding ways to harness the potential of technology to push the frontiers of craftsmanship lies at the heart of Claire Woolley’s approach to jewelry design.
Claire has a Bachelor’s degree in Jewelry and Silversmithing and a Masters in Design Management from the renowned University of Central England’s Birmingham School of Jewellery. Winner of numerous industry design awards and sponsorships, Claire’s reputation as an innovator is well established. She has started her own design service offering her skills to companies wishing to develop new and influential jewelry collections.
The universal and iconic image of the stork delivering a newborn is captured in Claire’s pendant. A beautiful tanzanite drop, representing the child, is delicately suspended from the necklace’s abstract depiction of the stork in this simple, graceful interpretation of the theme.
One of the most internationally acclaimed design houses in Brazil, Talento Joias was founded in 1990, guided by a desire to create original and exclusive jewelry.
Since then, Talento’s clients have been seduced by sophisticated, harmonious designs that are made not only with the finest quality metals and gemstones, but also with a genuine love for work of outstanding beauty and exceptional attention to detail. Talento Joias launches two collections each year inspired by changing trends, while its Talento para Noivas (Talento for Brides) is a specialized collection that grew out of one bride’s request for a custom wedding piece.
Talento Joias’ delicate, distinctive necklace combines twirling strands of tanzanite beads with polished tanzanite ovals set in starburst diamond clusters. Representing hope and life, its designers’, Rachel Tavora and Renata Bessa (featured above), were inspired by the Greek myth of the first woman, Pandora. Created under the direction of the god Zeus, Pandora was a poisoned gift to mankind. According to myth, Pandora was tempted by her curiosity to open the forbidden box given to her by Zeus. In doing so, she released all of mankind’s miseries locked inside, closing the box only in time to capture hope. Although paradise seemed lost, the myth ends with hope’s survival, showing that even in the bleakest of times, so long as hope survives, mankind keeps its chance to be re-born to a new and better life.
Originally established in 1798, Boodles (formerly Boodles & Dunthorne) has evolved into a truly contemporary British brand, whilst retaining the strong family values and tradition of fine craftsmanship that are so integral a part of its heritage and identity.
oday, its designers, among them Maria Webster, specialize in creating beautifully crafted, highly desirable jewelry characterized by its timeless quality. Maria graduated with a BA (Hons) degree in Design and Applied Arts from Edinburgh’s respected College of Art, and began working with Boodles when she won a work placement with the brand in the 2001 Royal Society for the Arts Student Design Awards.
Maria Webster’s graceful birth pendant for Boodles was inspired by the precious bond between mother and child. Fashioned in platinum and encrusted with diamonds, Maria’s pendant represents the cradling arm of a mother as she nurtures her baby.
Louis Mariette is the flamboyant, London-based bespoke milliner whose exuberant designs and infectious personality have won him a star-studded following that includes such style-makers as Helena Christensen, Alek Wek and Sophie Dahl.
No stranger to working with precious gemstones, Louis was commissioned in 2005 to create a diamond and platinum hat worth almost $3 million for the Platinum Guild’s “Le Chapeau d’Amour. He has also worked with Boucheron and Swarovski, successfully fusing traditional bespoke millinery, show-stopping fashion and fine jewelry to create his own unique signature style.
Louis Mariette’s spectacular design, fittingly entitled “A Dream in Africa,” was inspired by memories of his own childhood in Africa. Louis describes this as a dazzling assault on the senses, from the vibrant colors of exotic flowers in bloom to the jumble of semi-precious stones and crystals he would collect to create handmade bracelets and necklaces for his friends and neighbors. Louis’ tanzanite adorned headpiece is a vision of exuberant flowers, handmade in painted resin using a specially developed technique. Twirling metal work is encrusted with pink and lilac pearls, and on the largest cluster nestle sparkling tanzanite gemstones. Louis set the gemstones so that they would sit at the center of the wearer’s forehead, to signify the birthplace of all creativity, a person’s ideas, thoughts and dreams.
Sevan Bicakci’s magical pieces breathe life into two thousand years of history.
Growing up in the heart of Istanbul, Sevan’s inspirations are the ancient Byzantine and Ottoman palaces, churches, mosques, fountains, mausoleums and bazaars of that great city. Sevan apprenticed from an early age with master goldsmith Hovsep Chatak in the famous Grand Bazaar, which itself carries more than 500 years of traditional jewelry craftsmanship within its walls. He built his reputation as a model maker extraordinaire, before creating his first jewelry collection in his own name in 2002. Each of Sevan’s whimsical works has a raw, inspiring beauty; far from mere accessories, his pieces command the foreground, communicating a powerful sense of place and time to all that behold them.
Sevan Bicakci’s extraordinary tanzanite ring was inspired by the traditional Tales of One Thousand and One Nights. In this tale, part of a frame story (stories within a story) the wives of the Sultan Schahriah live to see only one dawn after marriage because he has them beheaded the morning after their wedding night. However, his new wife, Princess Scheherazade, outruns her fate by telling the Sultan a new story each night, always stopping at the most exciting point so that he will let her live until the following evening. The ring re-creates the atmosphere in which Princess Scheherazade weaves her magic, enthralling her audience with her tales of mystery and adventure. In this way, the characters Aladdin, Ali Baba and Sinbad the Sailor were born, and in bringing them to life, the Princess earns her nightly reprieve, and survives to see another day.
Internationally celebrated for pushing the boundaries of jewelry design, Shaun Leane began his career 20 years ago in the famous Hatton Garden jewelry quarter of London. Beloved by the world of haute couture, Shaun’s catwalk collaborations have included projects with the house of Givenchy as well as a long-standing creative partnership with one of the leading lights of the avant garde, Alexander McQueen. Shaun has been creating jewelry and catwalk sculptures for McQueen for the past ten years. His work has also been exhibited at some of most prestigious and directional museums and exhibition spaces around the world, including 2003’s “Past and Present – Jewellery by 20th Century Artists” in collaboration with Sam Taylor Wood at London’s Louisa Guinness Gallery; 2004’s “Body Extensions” at the Museum Bellerive in Switzerland, 2005’s “History of Diamonds” exhibition at London’s Natural History Museum and 2006’s “Anglomania” at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. From its founding in 1999, Shaun Leane’s eponymous company has grown into an international brand, retailing his distinctive jewelry at more than seventy outlets worldwide.
Shaun Leane’s ring, innovative in design and breathtaking to behold, is set with a 10 carat tanzanite centerstone around which flows a coil of pavé set ocean blue sapphires. The tanzanite cleverly locks together with interchangeable bands designed to complement its magical and mysterious qualities. Shimmering natural black diamonds capture its intangible energy, whilst shimmering white diamonds intensify its refreshing brilliance. While the white diamond band is to wear by day, the black diamonds are perfect for evening.
Spanish-born Arabel Lebrusan began her career in Madrid, before working as an artist and designer in the Netherlands.
Now in London, where she is completing a Masters in Jewelry Design at the acclaimed Central St. Martin’s College of Art and Design, Arabel draws on a variety of disciplines including fine arts, history, fashion and gemology as well as jewelry design. She creates pieces that combine a broad range of technical and cultural influences, and is guided by ethics in her choices of materials and processes.
Arabel Lebrusan’s delightful, unusual earrings were inspired by the crochet work women in her native Spain use to create baby clothes and crib linen for newborns. The combinations of different thread structures with the resulting variety of forms and finishes are reflected in Arabel’s blending of white gold, silver and enamel to create the fans, swirls and teardrop forms in her feminine piece.
Le Vian is an internationally recognized jewelry brand with a name and tradition that spans 500 years. Its jewelry applies the ancient arts of hand carving, beading and goldsmithing to designs at the cutting edge of modern style.
Le Vian is a house that specializes in the intricacies of gemstones, be it meticulously matching tanzanites that showcase the gem’s unique ability to reflect different hues in the spectrum of blue, or giving the traditional an unexpected twist as in its chocolate diamond collections, or cutting stones into impossible shapes if an exceptional design demands it. Whisper the name “Stuart Weitzman” to any discerning shoe-lover and you’ll inspire a reverie. Stuart Weitzman’s sumptuous pumps, glittering mules and studded stilettos are beloved by women all over the world, who embrace creations that combine impeccable style with a legendary attention to detail. Stuart Weitzman is also known for his trademark use of unique materials, from cork and vinyl to Lucite, wallpaper and 24 karat gold. Le Vian’s designer and CEO Eddie LeVian and Stuart Weitzman each brought their eye for beauty, great technical skill and a desire to create something spectacular to this extraordinary collaboration.
The Stuart Weitzman and Le Vian pair of evening shoes are true show-stoppers: a $2 million dollar creation in glistening silver leather embellished with over 185 carats of tanzanite and 28 carats of diamonds. Stunning ankle bracelets are set with museum quality tanzanite gemstones, painstakingly matched and cut by Le Vian’s master craftsmen, each crowned with a spectacular 16 carat, sparkling tanzanite drop which adorns the front of the foot. The shoes are balanced with a delicate diamond front strap that perfectly complements Stuart Weitzman’s timeless, elegant shoe design.
Janice DeBell has designed jewelry for the most prestigious of luxury brands, moving from Harry Winston to Tiffany & Co., where she designed for 18 years before joining Kwiat as Director of Design in July 2004.
Kwiat, a house which draws on a one hundred year history of expertise in diamonds, remains at the forefront of refined, progressive jewelry making, guided by its philosophy of casual elegance. Janice certainly brings a modern aesthetic to all her designs, believing that even the timeless classics can be worked in a way that is fresh and wearable. With an artists’ sensibility, Janice draws inspiration from architecture and sculpture, yet her imaginative designs are suffused with color, movement and fluidity, and often feature open work to accentuate the interplay between luminous gemstones and the wearer’s skin. In fact, for Janice, it is a guiding principle that all jewelry, from the simplest to the most dramatic, should move with and complement rather than restrict or overshadow the wearer.
Janice DeBell’s tanzanite earrings for Kwiat were inspired by a desire to celebrate the gemstone’s unique spectrum of colors, from shimmering lilacs to deepest blue-violet. Juxtaposing trilliants and ovals, Janice has created a look that is powerful and full of drama, echoing the form of a traditional African tribal spear but with an aesthetic that is edgy and modern. But there is a final, unexpected touch of old-school glamour: turn over each spear and you will find a delicate dusting of diamond micro-pavé.
The house of Ehinger-Schwarz was founded in 1876 by the great grandparents of incumbent designer Wolf-Peter Schwarz.
Wolf-Peter revolutionized jewelry design with the creation of his patented interchangeable jewelry system, the Charlotte line, named for his wife and business partner. This groundbreaking line accomplished Wolf-Peter’s desire to turn the jewelry wearer into the designer. Pearls and precious gemstones with interchangeable platinum, gold and sterling silver settings can be put together in almost limitless combinations to create rings, brooches, pendants, earrings and pins. Though contemporary in style with an emphasis on informal wearability, the Charlotte collection is also known for its exceptional craftsmanship. Its metalsmiths employ revived craft traditions requiring great skill, including granulation, an ancient Etruscan technique done on the island of Bali, and the “fired enamel” method dating back to the 12th Century.
Charlotte Ehinger-Schwarz’s extraordinary necklace is a tribute to the abundant geological landscape and the magnificent native wildlife of the country of Tanzania. A giraffe, elephant and ape nestle among precious rubies, tsavorite and zoisite. A detachable diamond drop carries the necklace’s centerpiece: a dramatic 25 carat marquis cut tanzanite.
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