Tagged with 'London'

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.

One of the largest and most vibrant capital cities in the world, London is filled with brilliant jewellery ideas and destinations for culture lovers and shoppers alike. To help you navigate some of the treasures dotted around the city, here is a short jewellery guide to the city with five favourite places to visit.

FOR THE HISTORY LOVER

The Tower of London and Buckingham Palace are two of the most popular royal palaces for visitors to the city. In time for the Jubilee and the Olympics, a recent new exhibit at The Tower of London explores the role of the Crown Jewels and the story of the Tower in protecting these treasures.

The Imperial State Crown is an undisputed highlight of the extraordinary jewels on display and is worn by the Queen at the annual State Opening of Parliament. Set with sapphires, rubies and pearls, the crown also features one of the most famous diamonds in the world. If you are visiting Buckingham Palace in 2012, do not miss the story of the Cullinan Diamond in the new exhibition there.

FOR THE BUDDING GEMOLOGIST

The Vault at the Natural History Museum is a treasure trove for anyone interested in gems and gemmology. Discover its gallery of celestial meteorites, the 1,383.93 carat Devonshire Emerald, pure gold crystals and a diamond the size of an egg.

FOR THE ROMANTIC

The Linnean Society of London is the world’s oldest active biological society and, situated away from the bustle of Piccadilly, quietly hides a secret for pearl lovers. Founded in 1788, the Society takes its name from the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus, who produced the world's first spherical cultured pearl.

Linnaeus grew his spherical pearls in freshwater mussels by drilling a small hole in the shell and inserted a tiny granule of limestone between the mantle and the shell of the mussel. The mussels were returned to their river and over six years covered the implanted material with nacre to make a cultured pearl. A set of these experimental ‘Linnaean pearls’ is held by the Society amongst the Linnean Shell collection.

FOR THE SHOPPER

If you are interested in browsing the best of jewellery design, London has so much to offer.

Historically Hatton Garden has been the main district of the jewellery trade in London. The area is now undergoing a resurgence as a home to independent designers and the new Goldsmith's Centre, a purpose built facility for promoting the best in creativity and craftsmanship.

Setting the fashion trend, Liberty’s may be the ultimate destination, offering contemporary jewellery from designers in a iconically British building fashioned from the timbers of two Royal Navy warships.

For luxury brands such as Asprey, Boodles, Bvlgari, Cartier, Mikimoto, Tiffany and others, the streets of Mayfair, and in particular Bond Street, Mount Street, South Molton Street and the Burlington Arcade, are the place to be seen.

A new exhibition of portraits of the Queen at the National Portrait Gallery, London is a charming retrospective look at the Queen's public life over the last 60 years. Opened to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee, this collection of formal, press photographs and contemporary portraits explores the Queen's relationship with her image and the media.

The exhibition has been organised chronologically by the NPG, with one portrait representing each year of the Queen's reign. Formal portraits by artists including Dorothy Wilding, Lucian Freud and Annie Leibovitz are arranged next to more private observations of this very public figure. The visitor is encouraged to consider how these images have evolved.

Although pearls are a constant throughout the exhibition, there are a number of surprises. Cecil Beaton's iconic portrait of the Queen on her Coronation day in 1953 is still magnificent, but Pietro Annigoni's dramatic image of a monarch in her ceremonial robes (seen here for the first time in over 25 years) is oddly of another time.

Best of all is their contrast with some of the snapped photographs. Patrick Lichfield's joyful picture of the Queen aboard the Royal Yacht, Eve Arnold's glimpse of the Queen sheltering under an umbrella and the anguish caught by Dylan Martinez following the fire at Windsor Castle are as striking as the formal poses.

In comparison, moving through the gallery rooms, more contemporary portraits by Gerhard Richter, Andy Warhol and Gilbert and George mainly offer a changing interpretation of this iconic image.

One of the highlights undoubtedly is Chris Levine's lightbox entitled 'Lightness of Being', catching the Queen in a meditative moment between exposures. It is a powerful and thoughtful piece.

The Queen: Art & Image exhibition is open at the National Portrait Gallery until 21st October 2012 and is highly recommended if you are visiting central London this summer.

That was an enthralling and nerve-racking fortnight of tennis. Congratulations to both Jonathan Marray and Andy Murray on their outstanding performances this year!

Tennis at Wimbledon has certainly changed since the game was played a century ago. Just look at this image of two gentlemen players from 1910. What a difference a new roof has made to the play and atmosphere of the 2012 championship.

It was lovely to see also that pearl sets were still very much in fashion in the Centre Court stands. Around the same time as when this image of a very different Wimbledon was taken, new techniques for culturing pearls were being developed in Japan. Today the beauty of these classic gems has become more affordable, with their colours and shapes being loved by contemporary jewellery designers.

Having been asked by a number of our customers for matching pieces of pearl jewellery, we have launched our first collections of Pearl Sets at Winterson and we will be adding more over the coming weeks.

Matching pearls together takes patience, experience and access to a large number of pearls to ensure that the quality, size and colour of each set is appropriate. Even a colour described as white can have cooler silvery or warmer cream hues that should be considered so as to be able to match pearls well. Matching is one of the value factors that we use to grade pearls and can be found as part of the detailed description of each piece of pearl jewellery at Winterson.

Most pearl sets combine a necklace or pendant with a pair of earrings, and perhaps a bracelet. Our Pearl Sets combine some of our best loved pieces of pearl jewellery and have a combination to suit almost every occasion! If you do need any help or advice, please do not hesitate to contact one of our team.

New pearls please...

With thoughts of sporting British Gold later this month edging ever closer, the story of Britain's history and relationship with this precious metal is told by The Goldsmiths' Company in a fascinating new exhibition entitled "Gold: Power and Allure".

Housed in the magnificent surroundings of Goldsmiths' Hall, London, the story of our love affair with gold starts with a chance discovery of ancient goldwork near Stonehenge. Dating back to 2300BC, it is thought that these ornaments are some of the earliest pieces of worked gold found in the UK. A series of Bronze Age and Early Iron Age torcs and crescent-shaped lanula neck pieces are also really quite beautiful.

Since then, gold has been actively mined throughout England and Wales, with gold for royal wedding rings today traditionally being made from Welsh Gold. In the year of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, the exhibition includes a number of historic and royal items including gold crowns, brooches and a rather ghoulish gold ring, that was taken from the finger of the dead Queen Elizabeth I.

Coinage explores Britain's currency and its relationship with the Gold Standard, which was introduced by Sir Isaac Newton in 1816. With the Olympics weeks away, the sporting trophies on display include a number of Olympic medals from 1900 to 1912 that are made from pure gold. These particularly rare medals compare to today's Olympic Gold medals which are cast with 92.5% silver and just 1.34% gold.

Among the more unusual gold items in the exhibition is this delightful mechanical life-size mouse made in gold and decorated with red garnet eyes and pearls. Thought to be of Swiss origin by Henri Maillardet, and dating from around 1810, it was purchased from a London dealer by John and Josephine Bowes for the sum of £22 in 1871 for their museum in Barnard Castle, County Durham.

By far the cutest exhibit in the show, the mouse measures around 11cm and is believed to be one of less than ten in the world. Wound by hand, the clockwork mouse still runs around and twitches its whiskers!

The Gold: Power and Allure exhibition is open until 28th July 2012 at Goldsmiths' Hall, London and admission is free.

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.

Diamond jewellery lovers planning to visit London this summer should make a note to visit this year's annual Summer Opening of the State Rooms at Buckingham Palace.

Following on from last year's spectacular exhibition of exquisite Fabergé eggs and other objects, a new exhibition "Diamonds: A Jubilee Celebration" will showcase diamond jewellery from the royal collections spanning from over three centuries. The centrepiece of the exhibition is the Cullinan Diamond, a copy of which is pictured above, the most famous and largest diamond ever found.

The Cullinan Diamond was discovered in 1905 in South Africa and was presented to King Edward VII by the Transvaal Government. Weighing around 3,105 metric carats before being cut into a number of smaller diamonds, the Cullinan diamond remains the largest rough diamond ever found. It was insured for $1.25m before being discreetly sent to England in a plain box by registered post so as to outwit any interested thieves.

The difficult and precise task of cutting of the stone was performed by famed diamond expert Joseph Asscher in Amsterdam, who unfairly is said to have fainted when his first attempt at cleaving the stone failed and the blade broke. With new tools the Cullinan was finally split and then cut and polished into 9 principal diamonds named Cullinan I-IX and 96 smaller brilliant cut diamonds.

Cullinan I and II, also known as the First and Second Star of Africa, were respectively set in the Sovereign's Royal Sceptre and the band of the Imperial State Crown worn at the Queen's coronation.

Together as the centrepieces of the Crown Jewels, they are two of the most famous diamonds in the world and can be seen by visitors at the Tower of London's new display of Crown Jewels. The remaining seven diamonds Cullinan III-IX were set into a variety of brooches, rings and a pendant for Queen Mary, wife of George V, and are being displayed together for the first time in this new exhibition of royal diamond jewellery.

"Diamonds: A Jubilee Celebration" opens on 30th June and runs through to 7th October 2012. Admission is only possible as part of the entry to the State Rooms at the Palace, which includes the Throne Room, the Ballroom and other state reception rooms. Be sure to book early as admission does usually sell out at least several days in advance and interest this year, with the Queen's Jubilee and the Olympics, will be particularly high.

In less than 6 weeks, Great Britain will celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II during the long holiday weekend of 2-5th June. Throughout the sixty years of her reign, the second longest by a British monarch in the last thousand years, Her Majesty the Queen has become one of the most photographed women of modern times. With an extensive archive of images available, it is a unique opportunity to retrace some of her signature styles and jewellery.

A beautiful retrospective of images by royal photographer Sir Cecil Beaton recently took place at the Victoria & Albert Museum celebrating the Queen’s family life and formal state role as monarch. If you were unlucky to miss this, another highly anticipated exhibition starts May 17th at the National Portrait Gallery in London and will bring together a collection of sixty portraits made of the Queen during the last sixty years.

The contrast between the portrait of Queen Elizabeth II at her Coronation in 1953 and the equally iconic, everyday image above of the Queen today could not be more striking.

Embroidered with emblems of the British Commonwealth dominions in pale colored silk, with silver and gold threads and pearls, amethyst and opals, the coronation dress was commissioned for the state occasion by designer Norman Hartnell. The Queen is also wearing the Imperial State Crown, with the weight of its precious large stones and perhaps the nation’s legacy and duties. Garrard and Company originally designed the crown for George VI and altered it to fit the new Queen. The Queen wore the coronation necklace and earrings made for Queen Victoria and which was previously worn by four Queens at their own coronations. This necklace is made of 25 graduated cushion-shaped brilliant-cut diamonds with a drop shaped pendant and will be a centrepiece of a dazzling exhibition Diamonds: A Jubilee Celebration this summer at Buckingham Palace.

Almost daily images of the Queen during the last sixty years have shown an unceasing dedication to her work and throughout her signature style has been elegant and confident. Bright block colour skirts and dresses in pale yellow or cheerful pink, for example, are often matched with a  jacket or coat, closed with a button, and finished with coordinated accessories.

A number of fashion designers have designed clothes for the Queen during her reign, including most recently Karl Ludwig Rehse, Stewart Parvin and Angela Kelly but her jewellery has been much more familiar. Signature strands of white pearls and white pearl earrings, which are likely to hold emotional value to her, grace both formal state occasions and royal visits and have been a constant amongst the spectacular royal collection of jewellery.

The Queen has several favourite white pearl necklaces. The Queen Anne and Queen Caroline pearl necklaces are two single strand necklaces made with large, graduated natural pearls. These historic necklaces are typically worn together and were given to Princess Elizabeth by her parents for her wedding in 1947.

The Queen is also often seen wearing a smaller triple strand pearl necklace, given as a gift in 1935 from King George V, her grandfather, for his Silver Jubilee. With smaller graduated pearls, this necklace is highly versatile and should be very comfortable to wear. The three strands of lustrous pearls reflect light, creating a flattering glow to the face. To complete the styling, the Queen often can be seen matching this necklace with a pair of diamond and pearl drop earrings.

This year's Jubilee is another milestone in the Queen's reign that, despite decades of change in the world, has outlasted many political leaders, trends and celebrities. This June will be an opportunity to celebrate a lifetime's dedication and service. Long live our Queen of Pearls!

Fashion lovers at London Fashion Week 2012 were treated this week to the Rock Vault, a celebration of some of the most inventive and eclectic jewellery design that Britain has to offer.

LFW is the vibrant setting for the launch of the new Autumn/Winter 2012 fashion collections. Somerset House was buzzing with around 5,000 visitors attending 100 shows from established and emerging designers. Alongside London debuts by Stella McCartney and McQ by Alexander McQueen, with an extravagant catwalk floor carpeted with fallen leaves, were bold colours and patterns, classic elegance and warm seasonal colours.

Rock Vault is a new initiative that has been set up to help promote the best of Britain’s fine jewellery design. Ten jewellers, selected by the British Fashion Council, curator Stephen Webster and the International Palladium Board, were offered an enviable chance to showcase their A/W 2012 jewellery collections.

The selected designers were Alexandra Jefford, Fernando Jorge, Hannah Martin, Hillier, Husam El Odeh, Jo Hayes Ward, Jordan Askill, Melanie Georgacopoulos, Sophie Bille Brahe and Tomasz Donocik. Also featured in the exhibition tent that overlooked the Thames were five bold jewellery design concepts cast in the precious metal Palladium by students from Central Saint Martins, London.

As the main events of LFW were winding down, we visited the Vault to discover its installations. It was inspiring to see the new developments in Fernando Jorge’s Fluid Diamonds collection and we love these supple pieces shown in combination with some unusual gemstones such as the apple-green Brazilian Chrysoprase.

There were also some striking jewellery designs with pearls by Melanie Georgacopoulos, playfully enclosing pearls in 18ct gold diamond and emerald cages, and Alexandra Jefford, whose modern pieces are inspired by architecture, nature and some fabulously metallic freshwater pearls.

A brilliant setting to showcase the jewellery talent in London, the Vault undoubtedly rocked this year.

Congratulations to Fyodor Golan and Sophie Breitmeyer for their recent success in Fashion Fringe 2011 at London Fashion Week!

Fashion Fringe is an annual competition to find young talented designers and help launch them onto the London fashion scene. Judged by a distinguished panel of industry professionals drawn from the creative, media and retail worlds of fashion, including Anne Pitcher of Selfridges, Claudia Schiffer and Roy Peach, of the London College of Fashion. The three finalists were asked to present their creative, and experimental, work at a tense Fashion Fringe catwalk event at Somerset House, London that took place as part of London Fashion Week this September.

The winner was Fyodor Golan, a design duo consisting of Fyodor Podgorny and Golan Frydman who met in London after studying at the prestigious schools of Istituto Marangoni, London and The Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Antwerp. Previously working with Alexander McQueen, Raf Simmons, Richard Nichol and Issey Miyake, they launched their own label in 2010 fusing their imaginative approach with beautiful hand detailing, leather scarring and the manipulation of fabric.

For the Fashion Fringe catwalk, Fyodor Golan collaborated with Sophie Breitmeyer who designed four collars specifically for the show. These brass sculptures, detailed with petals and hummingbirds, mirror perfectly the complex patterns and weaves of the Fyodor Golan work.

The new collection of pearl jewellery designed by Sophie Breitmeyer will debut in the next few weeks. We can't wait to show you them.