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|Objects| Above: yellow-gold Murano necklace set with zircons, demantoid garnets and kunzites; below: platinum Saint- Tropez ring set with a Paraiba tourmaline and diamonds interest”. He remembered a 1962 trip his father made to the great European design and jewellery hubs, buying from diamond dealers, searching antique shops and taking in the creative culture in streets and museums. Last year, he decided to follow the same trail, taking along for part of it design director Rebecca Hawkins, whose personal interest in Art Nouveau design had already taken her to many of the same destinations. Along the way, he enjoyed some interesting modes of transport, including a small plane over the Alps from Geneva to Vienna, a hot-air balloon over Florence and an open-top Aston Martin through Tuscany to Rome. “It needed to be fun, not for buying but a celebration of inspiration-seeking,” he says. “So we had lunch at the Ritz in Paris and played boules in the Tuileries Garden, saw a demonstration of Murano glass-making which inspired wild colour mixes, had a drink at Harry’s Bar in I love multilayering abstractions, taking ideas from several sources and blending them into something new – Rebecca Hawkins Venice, and stayed at the elegant Russie in Rome, all places which inspire the romance of jewellery.” In the meantime, Hawkins was absorbing the small details that make her designs so magical. Her eye and brain have extraordinary links: she can equally miniaturise an architectural detail into a tiny, precise feature on a complex jewellery piece or metamorphose the outline of a building or landscape detail into organic shapes whose origin is hard to guess, until a prompt makes everything clear. The Paris bracelet is an example of the former and, she says, “had to look French”, with its links taken from the curves and motifs of a Louvre balcony, its charms including the square-pleached trees of the Tuileries and details from the ironwork lamp standards in the Louvre courtyard. The Saint-Tropez suite, meanwhile, is a million miles from a place of superyachts and glitzy beaches; its restrained tracery of irregular, organic shapes lined with small diamonds and punctuated by large Paraiba-type tourmalines and blue-green PHOTOS COURTESY BOODLES; ISTOCK (ILLUSTRATION) 26 CENTURION-MAGAZINE.COM
From left: Liverpool ring set with one black opal, multi-gems and diamonds; South Sea pearl and diamond Copenhagen earrings; below: yellow-gold Paris Tuileries bracelet set with sapphires, blue enamel and diamonds enamel has no apparent link yet derives from the sunlit shapes ruffled by a light breeze on the blue water, visible from those yachts, and comprises one of her best abstract concepts. Hawkins asked for Vienna to be included “because I had never been but it is so important for my period of interest and has such artistic influence”. As always, she researched widely beforehand and was not disappointed. “The Secession Building and Klimt’s work were top of my list but, in the end, it was a detail of the big pots outside the building – dark blue with gold spirals – that inspired the gold and diamond scrolls of the Vienna pieces,” she says. “I’m always drawn to places that display the Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau styles that I love and which my work reflects.” It was, says Hawkins, “a wonderful collection to work on – looking for inspiration in all these places, finding the materials, comparing fabulous stones. In some cases, I had design ideas in mind, in others I was sidetracked into something even better.” Her expansive imagination shows in the larger necklaces. The Barcelona pieces are adventurous, with undulating lines and organic motifs fitted with opals and mauve jade cut in jagged shapes, along with faceted multicoloured sapphires, inspired by Gaudí’s mosaics in the Parc Güell and La Pedrera townhouse. “I love multilayering abstractions, taking ideas from several sources and blending them into something new,” she says. So the Murano necklace, rich with blue zircons, demantoid garnets and kunzites, comes from the colours of both the island’s houses and its handblown glass, plus the latter’s characteristic swirled patterns. The hardstones – there is also purple jade, with purple sapphires and tanzanites, representing lavender on the Provence pieces – are a modish addition to Boodles’ style. The same goes for enamel, which is used extensively both to suggest mood, like soft blue on the Paris pieces, and to give definition, such as white enamel contrasting with the deep Murano colours. There is also great variety, from calm pearls, light-blue aquamarines and blue enamel, reflecting the cool, pale light of Copenhagen, to the crazy-black opal, mandarin garnet, purple sapphire, yellow diamond and Paraiba tourmaline Liverpool ring inspired by the Beatles in their psychedelic phase, and where the Journey started as a tribute to Boodles’ origins. “Each destination needs its own narrative in terms of colours and shapes so there is an identity for clients to pick up on,” says Hawkins. If you love the twin romance of travel and jewellery, this is a collection to treasure.
