Jewellery

Great Designers

Gold is the material of the moment; noble, heroic, resonating with luxury, warmth and happiness, ancient yet timelessly modern, effortlessly fusing tradition with contemporary style. Just as gold, the ultimate heirloom, is passed from generation to generation, so goldsmiths, artists and jewellers of each era rediscover and reawaken the glories of gold in their own individual ways. Here we present the next group of trailblazing designer- jewellers, the golden ones to watch.
Angie Boothroyd

When Californian-born, London-based goldsmith Angie Boothroyd started out as a designer-jeweller, her aim was to create an entirely new gold aesthetic, jewellery that was luxurious yet relaxed, with an easy opulence to be worn every day. She hand-crafts every piece herself, using high carat gold, from 14 to 22 carat, and is known especially for her subtle combinations of coloured golds, green, red, yellow and white, that give her jewels a lustrous richness. She produces the alloys in her own workshop, to her own recipes, to create an individual colour palette, reminiscent of autumn leaves. Collections including Desert Rose and Freedom, and her new Chameleon necklace, are composed of delicate petals or organic slivers of gold, massed together or sprinkled delicately on jewels that shimmer with radiant hues. “For me, the joy of working with gold is all about colour. As an unalloyed element, gold has a deep almost hypnotic richness and I like to exploit this mesmerizing quality. The subtle colour changes in the Chameleon necklace have a meditative, contemplative effect.”
Daniela Lombardi

Daniela Lombardi is the creative talent behind the leading Italian goldsmith-atelier, Vendorafa Lombardi, founded by her father, in the North Italian jewellery town of Valenza, in 1950. She joined the dynamic family business after graduating with an architecture degree in 1979, developing the distinctive Vendorafa style of confident, bold, rich gold jewels, elemental in shape, with hand-finished tactile textures, and an innate Italian style. “Working with such a ductile material, I find its play of light gives me an expressive freedom, allowing wide surfaces and large volumes, creating three-dimensional levels and an architectonic effect. Gold stimulates desire, the desire to touch and caress a jewel, and I am content when my jewels give the wearer the sense of something unique and precious that permeates our history and traditions, the sense of beauty that we have inside us as Italians.”
Alexandra Jefford

Born and raised in Geneva, Alexandra Jefford moved to London to study fine art at Central St. Martin’s School, where she focused on etching and drawing. After graduating, she pursued a career as artist and illustrator, but in 2002, having taken a course at the Gemological Institute of America, she decided to turn her attention to jewellery, using her passion for modern art and design to develop original ideas, themes, shapes and forms, and an unconventional sense of jewelled beauty. Her conceptual jewels are shown in art galleries alongside work by names such as Zaha Hadid and the Campana Brothers. “Using gold alone to create a jewel without any embellishment has huge appeal. There is a purity and simplicity to designing with just one element. I love the fact that gold has always been a symbol of human desire and endeavour in myth and civilisation. I feel that I’m working with something magical. I even love the notion of gold as a spoil of war or hidden treasure. The element of fantasy.”
Roberto Stern

Roberto Stern is Creative Director of H. Stern, and the oldest son of the late Hans Stern, founder of the innovative and design-driven Brazil-based international jewellery house. In 1991, Roberto Stern took over responsibility for design, and in 1995 he took leadership of international marketing and product development, relaunching and repositioning the brand, subtly shifting the focus away from gems and towards gold. While his own creativity is at the heart of H. Stern, he collaborates regularly with artists and designers from all corners of the global design community from fashion icon Diane von Furstenberg to architect Oscar Niemayer. "Gold is a fascinating material. It is as malleable as our imagination can achieve. It is an unlimited source of creation that continually allows us to overcome limits. Working with gold, we have had the opportunity to create such amazing pieces as a t-shirt, a dress, a scarf, a bra, hair clips, flip flop straps and much more. I can't stop thinking about new creations to be brought to life in gold"
Fulvio Maria Scavia

The origins of Fulvio Maria Scavia’s success as a multi award-winning designer-jeweller and goldsmith reach back to the small goldsmith’s workshop established by Domenico Scavia in Milan in 1923. Over the years, this resolutely Italian name has risen to a pre-eminent position in the international world of fine jewellery. Through his own long and illustrious career, Fulvio Scavia has combined aesthetic research with ancient jewellery crafts and nature’s most precious resources. He works in his Milan atelier, alongside a team of goldsmiths, creating jewels to stand the test of time and enrich the mystique of the feminine ideal he considers his muse. “Gold is my favourite raw material, perfect for moulding all jewellery creations. The art of the goldsmith reached across centuries, embossing and shaping creativity and intelligence, so that each jewel possesses a rich soul, and becomes a witness to a great Italian tradition. The great charm of the hand-made jewel lies in the fact that it has passed through the hands of someone who has left his mark on his work; each moment of creation is unique.”
Alex Soldier

Alex Soldier, real name Alexei Soldatov, was born in the Russian city of Perm, bordering Asia, in the Ural Mountains, with its rich resources of minerals, its folklore and fables. After taking a master’s degree in computer engineering, Soldier pursued an artistic career, and in 1981 joined the largest jewellery company in the Urals, where he was soon promoted to chief designer, injecting originality and ingenuity into design and manufacture. He moved to the United States in 1991, working independently, applying his innovative thinking and artistic aspirations to conceptual jewels, making extensive use of heavily textured 18 carat gold. “I love working with gold for the great contrasts it creates when I apply my texturing techniques. The metal surfaces sparkle with mystery and entice the viewer to look more closely, examine the details and uncover hidden meanings. All of my jewelry tells a story and gold is an imperative part of my rhetoric. Gold is an eternal metal that carries the remarkable aesthetic of our ancestors when passed on to generations.”
Shaun Leane

Shaun Leane began his career training at the bench in London’s jewellery quarter, Hatton Garden. While working as a goldsmith, Leane began a long-standing collaboration with the late Alexander McQueen, creating provocative catwalk jewels that acted as a catalyst to Leane’s burgeoning desire to blend technical perfection with creative freedom, and in 1999 he launched the first collections of Shaun Leane Jewellery. Since then, while nurturing his own distinctive style, which has won him the U.K. Jewellery Designer of the Year award on four occasions, Shaun Leane has also worked on projects with artist Sam Taylor-Wood, diamantaire Steinmetz and Parisian master jeweller Boucheron. Today Shaun Leane Jewellery is evolving into one of the world’s most exciting and trailblazing luxury jewellery houses. “I like to work with gold as it is such a durable and malleable material. It is also a beautiful canvas on which to apply enamel; it really allows the craftsman to engrave in such detail and then glaze with an array of opulent colours. I appreciate gold for many reasons, white gold for its sophistication, yellow and rose for their warmth and essence of pure luxury.”
Anand Shah

With no formal training, but a passion for design, Anand Shah founded Ansaa Jewellery, in Mumbai, India, in 1997, with the simple aim of creating exemplary hand-crafted 22 carat gold jewellery. Together with his business partner, K. P Shah, in charge of marketing, Anand Shah broke through established conventions to come up with a new and contemporary style, harnessing traditional Indian craftsmanship, sometimes incorporating oil painting, carved gems, wood; over the years Shah has trained some 225 craftsmen. Ansaa Jewellery has won numerous awards, and is collected by connoisseurs and celebrities in India and around the world. “Gold to me is 'Peace of mind'. As an Artist, the malleability of gold allows me to re-form it into whatever my creativity desires, satisfying my visual dreams, bringing endless possibilities. Peace of Mind. As an Owner, gold has an indisputable value, delivering an immense sense of security and confidence. Peace of mind. Irreplaceable by any other feeling life can offer.”
Pamela Froman

Born and raised in Manhattan by her mother, the sculptor and designer Ann Froman, Pamela graduated from New York’s prestigious Fashion Institute of Technology, before moving to Europe and settling in Paris, where she began designing jewellery for top couture houses including Courreges, Guy Laroche and Valentino. Keen to forge her own artistic path, she created her own fine jewellery collection, which was debuted in 2006 at the JCK show in Las Vegas. Since that time Pamela has garnered many awards and accolades for her gold jewels. She lives in Santa Monica, California with her husband and son. “I believe gold is beautiful in any color, not just yellow, and I love the contrasts that can be achieved with different alloys. My “Crushed Mélange” collection is made up of distinctly different colours of 18 carat gold, Pink, Green, and White, which, when combined, create a pretty pastel palette. Various colours of gold create more subtle graduated combinations in my “Ombre Crush” collection. I especially love the warmth of gold that fades from Pink to Yellow, fabulous on any skin tone!”
Lucie Heskett-Brem

Lucie Heskett-Brem, known as the Gold Weaver, was born in Lucerne, where she later trained as a goldsmith, serving an apprenticeship from 1988-92. Her world-renowned speciality of hand-made chains is inspired by her personal passion and a lifelong fascination with the symbolism of chains, their meditative repetition and connectivity. She is deeply versed in the patterns and techniques used by goldsmiths from ancient civilizations and through the centuries. Using her own high carat alloys, she makes each intricate chain entirely by hand, so that each chain is a unique work of art. “When I was introduced to Gold I loved it. For me Gold has a mystical, magical attraction which goes way beyond its look or its value! It is more of a feeling than a look. Gold is formed when a star explodes and in some way it retains and radiates this energy. It is the symbol of the untarnishable, unbreakable Will - the Sol Inivictus of the ancient world. But I simply enjoy it. You only have to show a child once and it will know forever what Gold is. “