Groh Ripp - The Magazine

048 GROH + RIPP
“
EVERYDAY I AM
ASTONISHED
ANEW BY THE
ENDLESS BEAUTY
OF THE STONES.
”
Nicole Ripp
They love the beautiful things.
Nicole and Sandra Ripp
love jewellery and fashion,
colours and forms, individual
designs and versatile
combination options. They
love nature, landscapes, the
mountains in Idar-Oberstein,
the forest that they
walk through with Nicole’s
dogs. And this is why it is
not surprising that they also
love gemstones. The roots
of this passion lie deep: in
the agate cutting firm of
their grandfather they saw
how large, uncut stones
were gradually transformed
into genuine works of art.
They recall the children of
the customers with whom
they played on the meadow
outside the workshop, the
bubbling pans on the stove,
giving off their sweet smell
Nicole Ripp has never lost
her eye for the beauty of
gemstones. Despite her
daily contact with the valuable
materials of nature,
she still appreciates every
one of them.
when grandfather cleaned
the agate, and the numerous
journeys around the world.
They learned at an early
age where the stones came
from, met the mine owners
and their children — an experience
that still affects the
sisters to this day.
After leaving school they
both studied Business Management.
Nicole Ripp ini-
tially went to America and
Switzerland and completed
an apprenticeship at a bank.
She planned to return there.
Torn between the sober
world of the banker and the
glittering world of the coloured
stones — she finally
decided on the company, due
perhaps in part to the fact
that she missed the sparkle,
the shine and the euphoria
of the material. Her passion
for the coloured stones has
remained with her to this
day. “My sister and I have
always loved the stones.
Even as small children we
were fascinated to see what
our father and grandfather
would do with the stones.
We spent our childhood at
the cutting workshop and
this is probably where our
enthusiasm comes from,”
says Nicole Ripp.
As similar as the sisters are,
the material has been used
in very different ways.
Nicole’s eyes sparkle when
she talks of the riddles of
nature, of buying the uncut
stones, of the different fundamental
substances which,
with the influence of colouring
trace elements, become
different coloured stones,
such as the chrome deposits
that make an emerald
out of a beryl, but a ruby
out of a corundum. She enthuses
over the harmony of
chemical structures and how
they influence the structure
and colour of the different
stones. “It is the entirety of
the different forces of nature
that influence the stones,”
she says, “And this complexity
ultimately forms their
beauty. Nature is a precious
commodity — we know how
to treat it appreciatively.”
GROH + RIPP 049