Necklaces Archives

Eerie beauty: Sevan Biçakçi’s tiny masterpieces.

October 31, 2013

Happy Halloween, my dears! Are any of you dressing up today? I hope so. I’m planning on putting something fun myself to wear while giving out candy to any to small monsters and ghosties who might happen to ring my doorbell later.

Instead of going full on creepy crawlies for Halloween, I’ve decided to show you a sampling of the work of incredible Turkish jeweler, Sevan Biçakçi. I don’t have full information on a lot of these pieces but they’re all going to be worth looking at, I promise you that. Not all of these pieces are spooky, but they all share an exotic richness that makes me think of Middle Earth or some other magical land.

This Sevan Biçakçi ring is made in 24-karat gold and sterling silver with more than 3,000 hand-set multicolored diamonds, 164 hand-set seed pearls, and one South Sea baroque pearl.

It’s an octopus, but there’s something almost spider-like about those tentacles, don’t you think?

This piece is smaller but no less fierce. It’s a 24k gold and oxidized silver granulated ball chain necklace with an engraved rose gold Turkish dagger pendant featuring a sapphire-encrusted holder.

In keeping with the weapons theme, how fabulous is this cuff bracelet? The bracelet is made of woven 18k rose gold and oxidized sterling silver mesh with a centerpiece set with black pave and rough cut diamonds. The bracelet fastens with a sword that dangles from a tiny chain.

Here’s a detail shot of the bracelet’s central element for you.

Here’s a ring for a Titania rather than an Oberon. This diamond and amethyst flower ring features a hand-carved floral motif encased within a faceted amethyst stone. Surrounding the center stone is an intricate setting of 2.05ct white, brown, and yellow diamonds and 2.19ct sapphires.

This red (ruby?) Sevan Biçakçi ring practically glows.

Let’s end with another floral piece. This pendant features intaglio-carved tulips encased within a faceted citrine. The citrine is surrounded by sapphires and white rose cut and black pave diamonds on a scalloped frame. The pendant hangs from 24k gold and oxidized silver cable chains. Despite the flowers, this pendant is anything but sweet.

What do you think of Sevan Biçakçi’s aesthetic? Would you wear any of these pieces?

All images and info are thanks to the following sources: Octopus ring, dagger pendant necklace, diamond mesh sword bracelet, flower ring, tulip pendant necklace, all others via Sevan Biçakçi’s website.

Gold, coral, and diamond bracelet and pendant.

October 28, 2013

How do you like these gold, coral, and diamond beauties:

They were listed in the same Bonhams auction and photographed together, but not sold as a set. I think they make a glorious pair.

Let’s look at the pendant first. Such an interesting shape, isn’t it? It’s designed as a pavé-set round brilliant-cut diamond ribbon suspending two coral drops. It’s bigger than you might imagine from the picture: the length is listed as 4.5 inches and total diamond weight as 8.35 carats.

I really wish there was a picture of it a on a chain; I want to know where the pendant loop is and if it would hang vertically or list to the side. I’d love to see this on a longish chain. Maybe 20 inches?

The bracelet is 18 karat gold and features pale pink coral cabochons and 28 carats of round brilliant cut diamonds in a textured wirework mount.

The design in general feels a little dated, but I think this pretty piece could be brought into the 2000’s pretty easily with the right styling. You’d just need to contrast the sweetness with something angular and tough, maybe pair it with leather or and asymmetrical LBD. You’d also have to not have my skin tone – which is almost identical to that coral.

Here’s a side view. It really is a piece with a lot of volume, and such marvelous texture. What do you think, would you wear it? How about the pendant?

Both of these gold, coral, and diamond pieces were listed in an October 2013 Bonhams auction. All images and info are thanks to Bonhams.

Oscar Heyman jewels at JCK Privé NY.

October 24, 2013

Today I’m going to share with you the last photos I have from JCK Privé NY – the fabulous Oscar Heyman jewels that I was lucky enough to get to try on.

If you’re seriously into jewelry, your ears perked up at the name of Heyman. Oscar Heyman & Brothers have legendary status as a “Jeweler’s jeweler,” known for producing high quality fine jewelry for the likes of Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, J.E. Caldwell, and Shreve, Crump & Low. When Cartier was asked to produce a setting for the Taylor-Burton diamond, they turned to Oscar Heyman and Brothers. You can imagine my excitement when I turned a corner at JCK Privé NY and saw a booth full of Oscar Heyman jewels sparkling at me.

Tom Heyman – who kindly showed me around the booth’s Oscar Heyman jewels that day – told me that I had half a million dollars worth of jewelry on my hand before he added the diamond ring you see in this picture.

I don’t think I took a single bad picture of this yellow diamond and diamond ring. It was basically mugging for the camera. I hope it finds a good home.

At the Oscar Heyman booth, I was stuck again and again by the incredible beauty of the stones used to make the jewelery that I was admiring. Each piece had very clearly been crafted in order to best showcase the raw materials (and with great success). It was particularly evident with the incredible cat’s eye stones that I saw in several pieces, like this cat’s eye chrysoberyl and diamond bracelet.

Have I mentioned recently how glad I am that I started this blog? I never imagined that it would lead me into as many incredible experiences as it has. For an example, please see the opal, sapphire, and diamond ring above.

This emerald and diamond ring is probably the most magical thing I’ve ever had in my hand. I say that DESPITE all of the other mind-blowing jewelery you’ve seen me try on. This one is in my top 5 of all time, no question. Because: look at it. Holy moly.

How fun is this retro swoop brooch? “Swoop” being the sound I think it makes, rather than any official name. It’s an estate piece; Oscar Heyman & Brothers was founded in 1912.

This ring is even better than it appears at first glance, if you can believe it. Thanks to an ingeniously designed mechanism on the back, it snaps off of the ring mounting and can transform into a pendant on a matching necklace. I wasn’t able to to get a decent photo of the necklace or the mechanism, but please trust me that both were very cool.

One of my favorite parts of the visit was getting to see this: a draft of a diamond and yellow diamond bracelet. The stones are arranged on this foam in a rough form of how they’re going to be in the final piece.

This is the second stage (and the necklace that’s going to match the bracelet!) Here, the stones are set into a hard wax. From this point, Tom said, it’s about 6 months more work until the piece will be complete.

Tom took a turn being the hand model when we got to this sapphire and diamond moi et toi crossover ring. It did look fabulous on him.

A million and one thanks to the wonderful Tom Heyman, who spent quite a chunk of time letting me photograph the jewels in his booth one by one. I couldn’t have asked for a better experience. Additional thanks to Lang’s AJU for being as informative as always.

If you’d like to revisit the rest of the pretties I’ve shown you from JCK Privé NY, please click here for the Editor’s Preview recap or here for the Mimi So reap.

< Newer
1
…
38
39
40
41
42
…
78
Older >

Follow along with me on Instagram