JEWELLERY 101
The ancient art of enamelling is starting to grab the attention of a new generation of jewellers.
Fusing a powder to metal at high temperatures to produce a hard, glassy surface has been around since at least the Mycenaean era. The Persians and the Cretans brought a bright palette of colours to the process, which they used to decorate jewellery and objects. Artisans in China, India and Renaissance Europe turned it into an even more complex and intricate art form, which reached its peak around the turn of the last century with the famous eggs of Carl Fabergé and the art nouveau jewellery of René Lalique.
Since then? Not much, aside from some psychedelic hippie-dippie stuff in the ’60s and ’70s. While enamel provides jewellers working with precious metals and stones with a dizzying array of design options and painterly effects, few contemporary designers are taking full advantage of them—partially because we’re not asking for them. You’re more likely to get envious looks for the enamelled Le Creuset cookware in your kitchen than for any enamelware in your jewellery box.
IT’S RELATIVELY AFFORDABLE
The French word for enamel is émail, which mistakenly gives the age-old process an almost digital-age vibe. Hashtag it on Instagram and you’ll find jewellery pieces, but 90 per cent of them are folksy kitsch. This appears to be changing. Enamel’s versatility, wide range of colour choices and styles and relative affordability have put it back in the fashion spotlight. Vintage pieces are drawing attention but so, too, are new works from a host of young designers in Europe and North America.
TECHNIQUES USED TODAY
French jewellers were pretty much responsible for modernizing most of the techniques used in enamelling around 100 years ago: plique-à-jour, in which transparent or translucent enamel powder is suspended in wire cells with a temporary metal backing and then heated and allowed to cool before the backing is removed, creating a stained-glass effect; cloisonné, which is similar except the backing stays in place so that light doesn’t shine through the design; champlevé, in which the jeweller hollows out cells in metal and then fills them with enamel; and basse-taille (“low cut”), in which a pattern, chiselled into the metal before the enamel is added, shows through the glass.
BIG JEWELLERY HOUSES LOVE IT
Cartier started creating enamelled objets in the early 20th century, and each year it adds new cloisonné, plique-à-jour and champlevé pieces to its jewellery and watch collections. Coco Chanel used a lot of enamel in her costume jewellery; today, the house showcases it in the lettering and logos on some of its bags and pouches. Hermès has a whole range of enamelware bangles, bracelets and pendants, and enamel has been a fetish of Victoire de Castellane’s throughout her more than 20-year tenure as creative director at Dior Joaillerie.
The painterly aspect of enamelling particularly lends itself to watch-face decoration. A perfect case in point is Van Cleef & Arpels’s watches, some of which are a showcase of miniature enamel-painting techniques. One masterpiece is the Lady Arpels Ballerine Enchantée watch: A white gold figure—half butterfly, half ballerina—is sculpted in relief, set with diamonds and dressed in sumptuous champlevé enamel on a shimmering guilloche and enamel background.
THE INDIE INNOVATORS
Colette Steckel, a French-Mexican designer based in Paris, Mexico City and Los Angeles, decorates art deco-inspired initial rings with pink, lime and aqua enamel.
Raphaele Canot, a Parisienne living in London who used to design for Cartier and De Beers, uses enamel in contemporary art-inspired pieces, like her OMG! bangles.
Lydia Courteille in Paris marries old artisanal techniques with bright gemstones in her Kites collection, which has a strong ’70s hippie vibe. Her Caravan range riffs off antique Central Asian architecture.
The Sydney Evan collection, designed by Rosanne Karmes, is similarly inspired—except the pieces are more whimsical and suffused with sundrenched California chic.
None of these designers are reinventing the wheel, but they are making enamel more enamouring, more catwalk and less craft fair.