Boucheron Or Bleu takes inspiration from the waters of Iceland, boasting naturalistic impressions of the colour, texture, flow, reflections, and transparency
Strong, powerful, and raw–this is how Boucheron’s creative director Claire Choisne perceives the waters of Iceland, which now takes the protagonist role in her newest high jewellery collection. In a press release, the brand highlights Choisne’s creative process: “In the rush of a waterfall, she saw a diamond necklace. In the surge of waves, shoulder jewellery. In the heart of a glacier, a rock crystal bracelet seemingly sculpted by the passage of water.”
With these evocative imageries as inspirations, Choisn conceived 26 high-jewellery creations, akin to snapshots of nature, frozen in its rawest state.
For instance, Cascade, one of the series within the collection, takes cues from its moniker–resembling a waterfall. The longest piece ever crafted in Boucheron’s atelier, Cascade measures 148cm, with 1816 diamonds of different sizes along its length, painstakingly set in a single articulated row to give it a beautiful suppleness and strikingly realistic fall. A key feature: the necklace can be transformed into earrings, demonstrating Boucheron’s tradition of multi-wear pieces.
A continuation of the aforementioned narrative, Ondes emulates the delicate ripples of a water drop breaking the surface. Boasting rock crystal, sculpted and polished to remarkable thinness, the necklace, designed to fit like a second skin, highlights minimal metal use and a diamond at the centre of the rippling circles.
At Eau d’Encre, Boucheron exposes the reality of nature; it sees Iceland’s inky-black waters taking centre stage as an inspiration. Here, Boucheron selected obsidian, a volcanic stone of a beautiful, deep jet-black, to channel the intense hue. The bracelet, featuring a 3D-simulated wave, recreates the rough motion of water, while a snow setting contrasts the obsidian’s black hue, resembling the white foam of surf on black sand beaches.
Ecume, the sixth series, invites contemplation of the jagged, towering cliffs along Iceland’s coast, represented here by an extremely precise cut.
As the said white foam continues to break the monochromatic tableau of Iceland’s beaches, a brightness comes through. This instance birthed the creation of two rings that echo and oppose each other through the chromatic contrasts of their materials. The first ring foregrounds obsidian again, cut from a single block of deep, glassy black. The rock is then juxtaposed with the brilliance of diamonds set in white gold. The second ring taps rock crystal–a material much prized by the Maison–in an identical design, but this time playing with transparency.
Truly, the beauty of water is encapsulated in this timeless collection–which sees a plethora of other themes that reflects a unique aspect of the waters of Iceland.
