Tagged with 'CSM'

We are delighted to announce a very special collaboration in Pearls with the BA Jewellery Design course at Central Saint Martins (CSM), London.

Central Saint Martins ranks amongst the most influential arts institutes in the world. It has the reputation for being the home of creativity. The College exists to generate knowledge, to inspire creativity and develop the next generation of ambitious designers, artists and performers. CSM attracts the world’s most talented students. Drawn from over 90 countries the students represent some of the world’s most exciting raw talents.

What will we be doing with CSM this year?

Firstly, we have been working with a selection of Year Three BA Jewellery Design students so that they have a fantastic opportunity to be given free rein to produce a stunning piece of jewellery using pearls. With our own heritage of over 50 years of knowledge and experience of working with pearls, we hope this collaboration will be a great experience for these soon-to-be graduates.

In June, Winterson will be awarding a prize for the Best Use of Pearls at the Jewellery Awards evening on 20th June 2013 during the Central Saint Martins degree shows.

Secondly, the Year One BA Jewellery Design students at CSM are working in conjunction the upcoming Pearls exhibition to be held at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), the world famous museum of art and design, in the Autumn later this year. The exhibition explores the history of pearls from the early Roman Empire through to the present day, the beauty and allure of pearls which across centuries and cultures have long been associated with wealth, royalty and glamour.

Following an introductory talk by the exhibition's curator Beatriz Chadour, the students will be investigating the historic and cultural significance of pearls and their contemporary relevance and versatility. In addition they will be given a handling session at the V&A and experimenting directly with pearls in the workshops.

We will also be supporting these students with a range of pearls to work with. The results will be shown at the V&A on the Pearls exhibition Study Day, alongside a How to Wear Pearls event, which the students will be hosting.

It's a truly great privilege to be working with these two highly respected institutions of design.

Follow our Journal or Facebook page to keep up to date with how the collaboration develops this year.

We are thrilled to be announcing a new design collaboration with Alice Cicolini, a London-based jewellery designer, curator and author.

We have been working with Alice throughout this year to develop our new collection of pearl rings, which has just launched at Winterson. The collection features classic Akoya, South Sea and Tahitian pearl rings with diamonds and colourful gemstones, set in 18 carat gold.

Alice is best known for her beautiful and unique jewellery, which is inspired by the enamel traditions of Persia and the patterns and traditions of the Silk Route. Her pieces are handmade in India to the highest quality of craftsmanship, using an artisanal technique of placing enamel onto metal called meenakari.

This traditional enamelling style originated in the courts of Persia and was established in the early 1600s in Jaipur, Rajasthan. Colourful layers of enamel are laid into grooves in the metal and fired individually to build up a complex and intricate pattern that can turn a piece of jewellery into a work of art. Often this detail might only be visible to the wearer.

Alice's Silk Route, Jodhpur and Silver Tile jewellery collections combine vivid reds, yellows, pinks, blues and greens and are quite wonderful to see. The new hoop earrings (pictured above) from a new collection called Orbital feature enamelled 22ct gold and shimmering white opals.

A background as a former Director Arts & Culture for the British Council in India, a graduate of Central Saint Martins in London and an author on contemporary British dandyism, give some clues to Alice's love for fashion and creative design. She has exhibited at Somerset House and Sotheby's in London, as well as curating a number of international exhibitions on design.

Enamelling was also a favourite technique of the Art Nouveau jewellers such as Lalique and Fabergé around 1900. Around this same time seed pearls were very popular, being used to decorate brooches, bows and earrings.

What might be possible today?

Inspired by the tradition and combination of these classic materials, the new Alice Cicolini collection for Winterson will be launched in Autumn 2013.

Launching three new ranges of jewellery this Autumn is Sophie Breitmeyer, an award-winning designer that we were delighted to be able to collaborate with last year. It has been a busy year for Sophie, with a move to a studio at the Goldsmiths Centre, her bespoke jewellery business, and being nominated for Retail Jeweller's Catwalk Jeweller of the Year 2012 for her collaboration with design house Fyodor Golan.

Sophie tells us about her new collections for next Spring/Summer 2013.

What was the inspiration for the new Serpentina range?

The collection was inspired by The Rainbow Portrait, a historic painting of Elizabeth I, in which Elizabeth's dress is heavily embellished with pearls and a serpent knotted around her arm. This English Heritage inspired collection combines snake like twists with classic freshwater pearls to show two different angles of the jewellery. With a selection of earrings, necklaces and entwined rings, the collection is traditional with an empowered modern style.

 

What makes a piece of jewellery unique?

Whilst designing, I try to accomplish three things in the jewellery: to make it classic, unique and desirable. I believe that these three things are essential to women when buying jewellery for longevity. Unique to me means being original and different, for example manipulating the shape of fabric into an intricately handmade piece of metal, as with my Miniature Ruffle collection.

 

What style direction is jewellery moving in at the moment?

There are so many trends with jewellery at the moment, with one being the use of alternate materials such as palladium and colourful semi-precious stones to make fine jewellery more affordable. I try to design with classic looks in mind, to make a piece that will be timeless and will always stay in fashion. Of course these need to be desirable....what girl isn't happy when her friends want her clothes and jewellery?

What are you looking forward to in 2013?

I have a lot of exciting plans for next year, including new collections and making these available through my new website and other stockists.

A stunning kaleidoscope of colour, gems and jewellery awaited visitors to this year's International Jewellery London exhibition. As well as catching up with some of the new trends for the Winter season to come, one of the highlights of London's leading annual jewellery event is in finding some creative and innovative collections by new designers.

IJL's Bright Young Gems initiative is now in its 8th year and gives a selection of exciting new designers a unique opportunity to showcase their work. Previous winners include Sophie Breitmeyer, with whom we launched a collection of Akoya pearl earrings and pendants last Autumn.

Chosen by a leading panel of judges, the winners of the award this year included watch-maker Sophie E Ellis, an original and playful collection by Neil Marlow and Swarovski award scholar Stephanie Bila. Impressively, three of the four winners recently graduated in Jewellery Design from the renowned Central Saint Martins design school in London.

Perhaps the most eye-catching of all was Katie Jamieson's Hidden collection, a beautifully series of architectural rings, pendants and earrings inspired by the secret garden inside the Serpentine Gallery's 2011 Summer Pavilion. These polished silver earrings (pictured) create a sparkling riot of colour with their central gemstones of tsavorite garnet and tanzanite, being surrounded by pink rubies, orange sapphires, yellow diamonds and more tsavorite garnets. Other pieces hid their gems away, to be revealed only with a movement of the hand or by sound. Designed with surprises, Katie Jamieson's jewellery succeeds in creating a collection to explore.

Elsewhere in the show, traditional design mixed with the contemporary and it was a great chance to catch up with new pieces from some favourite and established designers. Andrew Geoghegan's vibrant Chocolate Box Ring, set with baguette cut gems of aquamarine, amethyst and citrine was a perfect way to finish off the colour theme.

There really was much for jewellery lovers to admire this week in London with London Jewellery Week underway, and a fabulous double opening of this year's Treasure and the Goldsmiths' Gold: Power and Allure exhibition at Somerset House. But our favourite show was at Central Saint Martins, where this year's graduating CSM students exhibited their work with 'Sorry for the Inconvenience, but We Are Trying to Change the World'.

This was the first year of degree shows since CSM moved to their new spectacular site at London's Kings Cross, a purpose built campus set around the frontage of an old Victorian goods interchange. The restored Granary building is quite stunning, with a historic brick frontage giving way to an industrial and modern interior space. All the college's disciplines have also been brought together under one roof for the first time and this week students from Fashion, Graphic, Ceramics, Textiles, Product Design and Jewellery showed off their work.

In the BA Jewellery 2012 show, we loved these pieces by Caroline Kernick. Inspired by 1920s French ballet and dance, a display of 5 highly intricate and elaborate necklaces, decorated with diamonds, sapphires, emeralds, coral and pearls, immediately catches the eye. Look a little more closely and the surprising reality of the hand drawn designs and the material used becomes clear.

Each of the necklaces has been meticulously constructed from individual sheets of 270g dove-grey card, layered with gouache or fine drawing to recreate the impression of fine jewellery. Diamonds are presented with depth, dimension and light sources as if they were set. Even the seed pearls have been given a lacquered lustre and a characteristic flame effect has been added to the Melo melo and Conch pearls.

A Papier Gouaché DIAMOND AND MULTI-GEM PEARL NECKLACE

Designed as a necklace mimicking the scale and arrangements of the Ziegfeld Follies centralising three Melo paper-pearls and a Conch paper-pearl all surrounded by graduating impressions of coral beads, pink sapphires, zesty orange sapphires and South Sea paper-pearls. Finely rendered white diamonds suspend the central motif and lead to a multitude of paper-pearl strands. All gouache pigments individually applied with Kolinsky Sable brushes on 270g dove grey Maya-card, precisely 2012, 13 ½ ins

Amongst the other collections that impressed was a passionate collection, beautifully displayed with dripped blood-red wax, of yellow gold and red garnet jewellery by Qingqing (Sasha) Wu.

A set of luxury, handmade watches by Sophie E Ellis showed that some of the traditional skills are still respected. Impressively too, this was just the second time in the last 20 years that the intricacies of watch-making have (successfully) been attempted by a student.

The CSM degree shows are still open to the public until 21st June and, if you can visit, they are highly recommended and not inconvenient at all.

Some exciting news today of our first collection of designer jewellery!

Winterson, the online luxury brand specialising in pearl jewellery, and Sophie Breitmeyer, the award-winning young British jewellery designer, announce the launch of a colourful new collection of contemporary pearl earrings and pendants for 2011/12. The unique collection brings together two key trends with the combination of vibrant block gemstone colours and classic pearls.

Sophie Breitmeyer, a graduate of Central St Martins, was recently described by Vogue Italia as "a new talent to watch" and was previously a winner of the Bright Young Gems award in 2010. Since graduating, she has developed a strong following for her creative approach to design and her combinations of unusual stones and different coloured golds. Sophie recently collaborated on a catwalk collection with design duo Fyodor Golan, winners of the Fashion Fringe award at London Fashion Week this September, and has worked with Amber Le Bon on her collections.

The collection for Winterson is designed to be highly wearable for the daytime and for the evening. Three new jewellery designs for a pearl stud earring, a pearl drop earring and a pearl pendant combine colourful circles of gemstones such as pink rubies, blue sapphires and green tsavorite garnets to create nine individual pieces.

At the centre of each design is a classic Akoya Pearl, a white saltwater pearl that was one of the very first pearls to be cultured in Japan and is widely admired for its quality and lustre. The pearls are hand selected by Winterson for this collection, which is finished in 18 carat white gold and manufactured to the highest standards in Britain.

Starting at retail prices from £945, this new collection designed by Sophie Breitmeyer is exclusively available today from Winterson online.

We are very excited to be working with Sophie Breitmeyer on our new range of designer pearl jewellery for this Autumn.

Sophie graduated from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design and, after having won a Goldsmiths Bursary in 2009, won a Bright Young Gems award in 2010, judged by Hilary Alexander of the Daily Telegraph, Vivienne Becker of FT's How to Spend it and Jessica Diamond of Wallpaper magazine. Since then her work has been featured in GQ and Vogue, as well as working with a number of established jewellery designers and brand names in the UK.

The inspiration behind Sophie Breitmeyer's own beautiful collections is drawn from looking at surface patterns and shapes within architecture and the flow and structure in dresses from fashion. With a great-grandfather who once was a diamond dealer at DeBeers, and later opened his own business in Hatton Garden in London, jewellery is part of the family heritage. Sophie complements each piece of her own designs with exotic precious stones. We love her signature ruffle style seen pictured above.

As well as her own work as a jewellery designer  Sophie, happily for us, has a keen interest in pearls:

"To make these new pieces for Winterson to be timeless meant not only being inspired by the new but also the old. Therefore as well as being influenced by current fashions for the use of block colour, the pearls that we have chosen for this collection are Japanese Akoya Pearls. These pearls are traditionally known for their fine quality and lustre and are a beautiful match for the gemstones that we have chosen: rubies, sapphires and tsavorite garnets.

In recent years the use of these iconic Japanese pearls has also been surpassed by the availability of Freshwater pearls from China. A lot of my influence with this collection was derived from the idea of bringing Akoya Pearls back to the forefront of jewellery design.

For this collection, which is made for Winterson in the UK, we have used the latest in design and jewellery manufacturing processes to ensure the highest quality finish possible for each piece."

Sophie Breitmeyer's collection of earrings and pendants will be available at Winterson early this Autumn.  Which one will be your favourite ?

Does environment influence creativity? And can an old dog learn new tricks? This debate has been renewed with the imminent relocation of Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design to a new home.

Central Saint Martins is the renowned art and fashion college of the University of the Arts London, Europe’s largest centre for education in art, communication, design and performance.

The College has a truly outstanding list of alumni including fashion designer Sarah Burton, artist Antony Gormley and jewellers Theo Fennell and David Morris. Many of the UK’s up and coming jewellery designers graduate through its doors each year.

Central Saint Martins is currently located across 11 old buildings on six different sites in London, but in Autumn later this year the College will be integrating most of its schools into a purpose building at King’s Cross, London.

The £170m redevelopment for the art school will occupy a group of industrial buildings and train sheds, transformed into modern spectacular spaces to serve the College’s future needs.

For more than 150 years, Central Saint Martins has been a pioneer in teaching and learning of art and design. Supporters of the move believe that bringing together the different artistic disciplines under one roof will create a dynamic and rich environment with unique opportunities for collaboration. Its critics are concerned whether the new location and environment will have an impact on the creative spirit and heritage of the school.

We are excited to discover the work of the next generations of Central Saint Martins graduates and hope the College with its world-class teachers will continue to thrive in its new surroundings. Later this year, we plan to introduce a new range of designer jewellery to Winterson, designed in collaboration with one of its graduates. More news on that soon!