Boucheron unveils its new, otherworldly and ephemeral jewelry pieces.
Nature is the prime inspiration for Boucheron’s newest jewelry masterpieces. Just as the company founder, Frederic Boucheron, reflected on the life of nature’s little creatures in the late 19th century, the Maison’s serving Creative Director Claire Choisne delves into the essence of life, divining the Creator’s design. Her latest collection, Impermanence, features 28 unique High Jewelry pieces organized into six botanical compositions, each frozen in its fleeting beauty. It is important for the jeweler to go beyond the lifelike realism of plants and creatures, capturing the flow of life itself. Claire drew inspiration from the Japanese art of flower arrangement, ikebana, which literally translates as “making flowers alive”, and its philosophy of wabi-sabi, which is about accepting transience and imperfection.
Light is the keynote running through Impermanence. Ubiquitous in the beginning, it gradually fades, dissolving into complete darkness, suggesting the end of a natural cycle. Composition No. 6—tulip, eucalyptus, dragonfly—is literally flooded with light, while Composition No. 1—poppy, sweet pea, butterfly—is entirely immersed in near-total darkness.
It took the creative director and Boucheron’s jewelers four years and 18,000 hours of painstaking handwork to breathe life into their philosophical reflections on the transience of everything living. The traditional gold and diamonds are accorded a rather modest place in the collection. In these lifelike compositions, they are joined on an equal footing by ceramics, aluminum, titanium, and sapphire glass overlaying a film of mother-of-pearl. The search for innovative materials led to the idea of working in the medium of borosilicate glass. Unlike conventional rock crystal, it can be blown and sandblasted before being encrusted with diamonds. This is the first time plant-based resin is used in 3D printing for High Jewelry.
Each of these fine, delicate pieces lends itself to most wondrous metamorphoses, making it suitable for wearing in a different manner. Thanks to an ingenious pivoting mechanism, the sweet pea can become either a bracelet or a brooch. The poppy stem becomes a hair ornament, and the butterfly can sit in the hair for decoration. The magnolia transforms into a collar necklace, while the wisteria features a comb for wearing in the hair or on clothing. The caterpillar brooch is flexible: bend the insect body in any way you want using a tiny mechanism…
Beauty is fragile and evanescent in all manifestations, not solely in the form of jewelry artworks, even those of the finest quality. All Impermanence jewelry will be offered as full sets, each in its own display case. Place one on your desk like a precious ikebana piece to remind you of the evanescence of beauty.
Photo: press-office
