Look Book

46 | thejewelrybook.com J e w e l -To n e d A r t My fi rst job in this wondrous industry was in the art department of Krementz & Co., a multi-divisional jewelry manufacturer. Creating all the graphic materials for 7 distinct collections exposed me to a world of jewelry from the prosaic to the sublime, and everything in between. One particular day, while I was carefully setting up gemstone jewelry on a platform under an old-school, ektachrome sheet fi lm, 8 x 10 camera, Richard Krementz, the maverick owner and one-of-a- kind gem himself, stopped into the studio to drop off a newly fi nished ring. e ring held a large, half-moon shaped Brazilian alexandrite amid a fl urry of diamonds. It was an extraordinary creation. Not only did the mercurial gem shimmer from cherry red to teal green under diff erent lights in the photo studio, the ring off ered a completely unique view from every vantage point. Richard explained that he saw a piece of fi ne jewelry as three dimensional. Every surface – including the back or under gallery – should be fi nished to pristine perfection so that every angle was aesthetically pleasing. He told me to always examine the back of a piece to see if it was fi nished as beautifully as the front, because if it was, it was indeed fi ne jewelry. Since that day in the photo studio of Krementz & Co, I have looked at fi ne jewelry through an artistic lens. I realized that fi ne art and fi ne jewelry are inseparable. A piece of jewelry is itself a miniature sculpture, fashioned not in marble, bronze, or clay, but in precious metals and gems. Fine art and jewelry share key attributes: beauty, rarity, cultural signifi cance, appreciation, and value. Fine jewelry is essentially wearable art. Even the craftsmanship involved in working with gemstones takes on various art forms: carvings, cutting, and of course, jewelry making. e colors, shapes, and refl ective properties of gems have inspired artists for millennia. Gems have served as symbolic elements conveying deeper messages in works of art, such as associating diamonds with purity and rubies with love. And gems have pigments to create art. Red ochre, derived from hematite, was used by early humans in cave drawings. Gorgeously green malachite was used in both cosmetics and decorative arts as far back as 2500 BC in Egypt, and azurite gave European Renaissance painters blue for their skies. Beautiful lapis lazuli was ground into a fi ne powder then mixed with a binding mediums like eggs or oils to create the dazzling blue pigment ultramarine, a favorite of Michelangelo and Vermeer. ese days, at Suna Bros., our photo studio fi ts neatly on the counter behind my desk, lights and all. So much has changed, but not the way I look at each new piece that comes out of our workshop. Before setting up each shot, I still admire how each little nook and cranny is fi nished to pristine perfection, how even the tiniest diamonds are set fl awlessly, how the gems burst with spectral colors. We collect fi ne art. We collect fi ne jewelry. eir visual storytelling inspires, evokes, and connects with us on so many levels. Whether expressed in paint, printmaking, or precious metals, one constant remains: the pleasure each brings into our lives. By happenstance – or as it later proved to be, kismet – my rst job out of college was in the art department of Krementz & Co., a large, ne jewelry manufacturer, doing ads, catalogues, copywriting, and large format photography. Flash forward 25 years, I was fully immersed in our glittering industry, and as an extra added bonus, a childhood fascination for gemstones became a signi cant facet of my responsibilities. When Krementz closed in 2013, I was fortunate to have found a second home at Suna Bros. doing exactly the same thing: all things creative and sparkling. Dazzle Dazzle Dazzle Dazzle by Danielle Barber Fall 2023 | Dazzle

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