Blog
Cartier necklace for the Fifth Avenue building
Architect Robert W. Gibson designed this Neo-Rennaissance 1905-built mansion. In 1917, his wife Maisie (on the painting) fell in love with Pierre Cartier’s double-strand necklace of 128 natural pearls, the jeweler offered a trade—the $1 million rare necklace plus $100 for the 52nd Street and Fifth Avenue mansion (at the time valued at $925,000) which would become his new boutique.
Gold - karats and colours
Hi guys! It is a beautiful winter day at the atelier, the snow is falling and I am reading about gold. I want to share some tips with those of you who are not an experienced jeweler (or buyer of gold, hehe), but with those who just like it and wants to know more to make a better choice at the shop and not to be cheated. KARATS With the karats we measure the purity of gold. The highes purity is 24 (no more!) which means that 24 parts out of 24 (99.9-100%) are gold. Beware not to be cheated...
Expo'67
As you might know, 2017 is the 50th anniversary of Expo’67, event which brought Montreal up to the international arena. This necklace is called “The Red Thread”. I made it big and bright to tell the story of the USSR in Expo’67. Its presence passed as a red thread through the whole event not only because of the Cold War but also because the fair had been intended initially to be held in Moscow, to celebrate the Russian Revolution’s 50th anniversary. However, for financial and security reasons the Soviets had cancelled and Canada was awarded it in 1962. In addition,...
Jewelry by Picasso. Father and daughter
Going through a magnificent catalogue of the exhibition Picasso to Koons: Artist as Jeweler, held at the Museum of Arts and Design in NYC in 2011 I was happy to discover a new dimension of Picasso, the artist whom I have been following for a long time at the places of his birth and life in Spain and France. His arts and crafts aside from painting always attracted me most, his jewelry experiments confirmed that once again. Le Grand Faune, brooch of 23k gold, 20/20 edition François Hugo after Pablo Picasso, 1973 (private collection of Diane Venet) In the mid-1950s he made...
Book review: Stoned
I wrote before Christmas about the new book I was about to read. Holidays made it a bit longer but I am happy to finally share this experience with you. Briefly, it was awesome. Wordily, here is why I liked it. Stoned is more than a book about pretty things. It’s an attempt to understand history through the lens of desire, and a look at the surprising consequences of the economics of scarcity and demand. First of all I need to tell something personal – why do I love jewelry? Aside from purely unexplainable chemistry and affection there is something absolutely reasonable about my...