Jewellery collaborations are a spectacular way for jewellery designers to come together and create something exciting and new, while staying true to their core philosophies of design and craftsmanship. In recent years, Assael has had three very successful jewellery collaborations. Each collaboration has its own personality, a reflection of the design aesthetic and ideas of the partnering jewellery designer. Yet within each collaboration we can clearly see an common, unmistakable thread, that is, Assael’s own vision of very fine quality pearls and exquisite craftsmanship.
Angela Cummings for Assael
Assael’s first (recent) collaboration was with Angela Cummings and it was both iconic as well as interesting. Angela Cummings is an award winning jewellery designer with many years of experience at Tiffany & Co., Bergdorf Goodman and at her own Design Studio. Therefore, a collaboration between Assael and Angela Cummings seemed natural, almost expected. This collaboration presents us with jewellery pieces that are classic yet timeless, and very much in Angela Cummings’ style. The colours of this collection are mellow- all we see are whites, blacks and gold. Yet, it is this very reticence to give in to colour that allows one to really take in the beauty of the pearls. White, lustrous South Sea and Akoya pearls, dark iridescent Tahitian pearls and softly glowing golden South Sea pearls create a magic all their own.
Sea Horse Brooch ; Dangling Swirl Earrings ; Scallop Bangle and Earrings
The brilliance of the jewellery design is also something to appreciate in this collection. This collaboration left me with two striking impressions. First, there is an homage to sea life in most of the pieces and second, there is a graceful fluidity and movement in the jewellery design, something rare and wonderful to behold. The Seahorse necklace and brooch, the Coral branch earrings and necklace, the Scallop bangle and wave earrings, have been crafted with elegance and a sense of fun, but they all give a definite nod to nautical life. There are swirls, waves and tendrils but everything comes to rest with the exquisite pearls. Angela’s use of both baroque and perfectly round pearls is a testament to her creativity as a jewellery designer and her ability to incorporate different shapes, both organic as well as perfectly proportioned, into her jewellery pieces. As a collaboration, it brings in the best of Assael and Angela Cummings and makes something much, much more!
Julie Parker for Assael
Assael’s second collaboration in recent years was with Julie parker, a British Jewellery designer who has worked for well known jewellery brands like Asprey, Theo Fennell and Elizabeth Gage. This was a collaboration with a big heart and came about because of Julie Parker’s activism for endangered animals in the wild and Assael’s support for this cause. In fact, a share of the proceeds from this collection goes to wildlife conservation group TUSK. Each piece in this collection, rendered in gold, white diamonds and lustrous South Sea pearls, showcases a separate endangered or critically endangered animal. Sculptural in form, the pieces can be worn as pendants or admired as objets d’art. Julie Parker has made magnificent use of mostly baroque South Sea pearls. She has designed her pieces around the organic shapes of very fine and luminous pearls.
Unlike other animal-shaped pearl jewellery pieces we usually see, where the pearl is fashioned as the head or torso of an animal, in Julie Parker’s creations, the pearl is separate from the perfect yet scale form of the animal, allowing the viewer to appreciate the fine and breathtaking details of the animal and also to enjoy the radiant beauty of the pearls, in their entirety. This collaboration evokes strong feelings and makes you reflect as you look at each piece separately- there is a sense of urgency, of time running out for these animals as well as for us. Yet there is hope as well. These gorgeous jewels, fashioned from the highest quality gemstones, metals and pearls, capturing these majestic but sadly endangered animals with breathtaking sincerity, are an exceptional way to save so many species while creating beauty and wonder at the same time.
Sean Gilson for Assael
Assael’s most recent collaboration has been with Sean Gilson and has resulted in The Bubble and Geometrix collection. Sean Gilson is a jewellery designer, a goldsmith and a creator of fine jewellery. Every piece made at his workshop is handcrafted personally by him. An ongoing collaboration, to me it seems like a unique and exhilarating symphony, and as pearl jewellery lovers, we are being treated to movement after movement of exuberant joy and creativity. The best part is … the concert is not over yet!
The Bubble collection is a marvel of modern jewellery design. It is fresh as well as innovative and challenges the old way of envisioning round pearls in fine jewellery. Each piece features a cluster of pearls, but a unique cluster, something never been done before with pearls. The pearls, iridescent like bubbles, seem to rest on each other, but there is no visible anchor or mechanism to explain this. For this collection, Sean Gilson chose perfectly round pearls, whether white South Sea or Akoya or dark Tahitians. This is an intuitive yet very brilliant choice, since it allows us to appreciate the jewellery design for what it is-on first glance everything seems simple but the more you look and ponder, the more you realise that this piece of jewellery is a complex and sophisticated interpretation of the Modern Pearl. Additionally, the beauty of the pearls themselves, with their superb lustre, shines unequivocally in all of Sean Gilson’s Bubble Jewellery pieces. And what of the mechanics of the jewellery design? How is one to unpack that? As far as I am concerned, I would rather enjoy the creative beauty of these jewellery pieces and let the illusion remain.
The Geometrix collection is another offering of Sean Gilson’s collaboration with Assael. Here, the jewellery pieces are geometric, as the name suggests, and very precise and architectural in form. A celebration of the beauty of a perfectly round, white lustrous pearl juxtaposed against the pristine lines of geometric shapes, this collection is modern, minimalist and very eye catching.
Assael’s Jewellery collaborations in recent years have been spectacular, creating jewellery pieces that are classic, heart warming and very edgy. These collaborations offer something for everyone but especially for pearl lovers, there are luminous, gem quality pearls to fall in love with!
Featured Image: South Sea and Akoya Pearl Bubble Bangle, The Bubble Collection, Sean Gilson for Assael.
You might also be interested in finding out more about Assael’s The Colors Collection
All images used in this post are the property of Assael. Any person or organization not affiliated with Assael may not use, copy, alter or modify any of the images used in this post, without the advance written permission of Assael.
