Jewellery designers push boundaries by mixing precious gemstones with unconventional materials

Personal jewellery preferences used to be simple: platinum or gold and diamonds; rubies, emeralds, sapphires and some precious gemstones. No more. Today, high jewellery can include unconventional materials, but they are always combined with precious diamonds.

The point is to mix precious materials with the non-precious; to create innovative ways of setting and combining gemstones; and to push the boundaries of jewellery design and craftsmanship.

Bold and creative jewellers are therefore introducing Haute Joaillerie to connoisseurs

by exalting the beauty of alternative materials.

Their jewellery creations stem from boundless creativity, combined with the talent of the finest designers and the rigorous disciplines of crafting by hand.

In the Materials of the Old World collection, G by Glenn Spiroshowcases two Horn Cuffs, with brown and white diamonds. These unusual and attractive bangles are set in titanium with 21 Horn pieces.

“If we like the materials, we buy, and when the time is right they are used in some manner and included in the collection,” Glenn Spiro says.

Another outstanding bangle is crafted in wood and set with cushion shaped old cut diamonds, round brown diamonds and triangular

wood elements.

“This is old ‘ Zitan’ wood as it is called, [which] again [is] not specifically chosen,” Spiro says.

Boucheronreintroduces wood as part of the Hiver Impérial collection, with the Rostov jewels. The maison incorporates aspen wood with a silvery patina to mimic a wintry scene inspired by the snow-covered lands of northern Russia.