The Forms of Water: “Or Bleu” Boucheron High Jewellery Collection

The great Parisian jewellery house Boucheron presents its Haute Joaillerie collections twice a year — in winter and summer. But if the former is closely tied to the house’s traditions, with its most iconic creations, Boucheron signature, such as the Point d’Interrogation necklace or the Jack brooch, the latter is called Carte Blanche and gives freedom of expression to Boucheron’s artistic director Claire Choisne. And she, definitely, has the most uncompromising imagination in all the industry, and every summer she literally blows our minds away. Although it would seem that there is nowhere left to go, this time, she once again pushed her boundaries, going to Iceland in search of the images and motifs for the new collection called “Or Bleu”.

The result comes in the form of 29 amazing pieces of jewellery. Almost all are black and white, just like the photographs of the German photographer Jan Erik Waider taken on this trip, which became their prototypes; there are almost no other colours here. And the most classic techniques are used here to make cosmic-looking jewellery, like, for example, the Cascade necklace, crafted from nothing but white gold and white diamonds. Its length is 148 cm, and this is the longest piece of jewellery made in the Boucheron atelier throughout its 170 years of history. 1816 diamonds of varying sizes and shapes were lined up to replicate the thread-thin northern waterfall that Claire saw in Iceland. That said, the necklace, in the Boucheron tradition, can be transformed into a shorter one and a pair of earrings.

The collection also features completely unconventional materials, as, for example, in the Sable Noir necklace, based on the photograph of a wave running onto the black sand of the Icelandic beach; sand, in fact, was used. Boucheron has found a company that turns sand into a durable and fairly lightweight material - similar quests to find unorthodox materials and their manufacturers are a part of each Carte Blanche collection. Or, for instance, this year’s most fascinating piece, a pair of Eau Vive brooches, which are brought to life by the spectacle of a turbulent stream, are worn on the shoulders, and resemble the wings of an angel. They were designed with 3D software to mimic the appearance of crashing waves, then sculpted from a single rectangular block of aluminium, also not the most traditional material in Haute Joaillerie, chosen for its lightness. And then they were set with diamonds before the palladium plating treatment to keep their brilliance. The brooches are securely fixed on the shoulders using a system of magnets.

In this collection, thanks to its black-and-whiteness, there is a special focus on rock crystal, Claire Choisne's and Maison’s founder Frederic Boucheron’s favourite material — it can be seen here in different types and forms. One example would be polished quartz, as in the Ondes set of a necklace and two rings, cut in thin circles from a single block to reproduce the effect of a drop falling on the smooth surface and creating a delicate slew of ripples. These circles are marked with the help of a diamond pavé, and the 4,542 round diamonds in this piece are invisibly set underneath the rock crystal (the metal is reduced to a minimum in this necklace designed as a second skin). Alternatively, rock crystal can be sandblasted, as in the grandiose Iceberg necklace and matching earrings, dedicated to the Icelandic “diamond beach,” where blocks of ice lie on the black sand. Sandblasting the rock crystal gives it the same frosted effect as the icebergs stranded on the beach. Boucheron jewellers loaded these pieces with trompe-l’œil illusions. Instead of securing the diamonds with the usual white gold prongs, they sculpted the crystal to hold the gemstones directly embedded within it to render the drops of water frozen on the ice surface, or placed them under the crystal, imitating the effect of air bubbles.

Though the collection is almost exclusively crafted in the black and white palette, there is room for one exception: the blue of the ice, the water showing through it, and the sky peeking from behind the clouds. A bit of this hue can be spotted in the magnificent cuff bracelet Ciel de Glace (“Ice Sky”), dedicated to the Icelandic ice caves. The bracelet was made from a unique flawless block of rock crystal — devoid of any inclusions — and carved with the undulating textures of those ice caves. The colour of the ice, through which the sky is visible, is emphasized by the pavé of diamonds and blue sapphires. But, probably, the main blue is the one that gave its name to the collection itself (“Or Bleu” in French, or “Blue Gold” in English) — the colour of the aquamarines in the Cristaux necklace, dedicated to the Icelandic glaciers. It is very graphic, as befits a crystal, and showcases 24 aquamarines mounted within the hexagons of rock crystal. The white gold structure, in which the stones are set, is crafted to be almost invisible from the gaze so that only the skin of its Maitre could be recognised through the stones. A dulling ground-glass treatment on the rock crystal yielded the frosted effect imagined by Choisne’s creative studio. The centrepiece of this necklace is a gorgeous 5.06-carat e-vvs2 diamond, which can be detached and transformed into a ring.

Courtesy: Boucheron

Text: Elena Stafyeva