Heavenly Skies

Sonia Kolesnikov-Jessop discovers how Chaumet masterfully transforms the elements of a changing sky into bedazzling jewels

- Sonia Kolesnikov-Jessop

Pointillist painters Henri-Edmond Cross and Paul Signac rendered the sky’s changing colors with small but bold touches of orange, mauve, pink, blue and yellow. For its latest high jewelry collection, Chaumet similarly evokes the sky’s many moods – from bright, sunny days to thunderous heavens with stormy clouds or a night sky lit by stars – as well as the birds that soar across the skies, using a rich treasure trove of gemstones.

Its collection theme, Les Ciels de Chaumet (Chaumet’s Skies), allows the Maison to explore different types of color palettes and express movement with its signature articulated fil-couteau (or knife-edge) setting, a technique in which the stones are mounted on extremely fine gold wire, giving each piece a distinctive lightness while showcasing the gems.

The delicate technique works especially well on rippling cascades of diamonds that depict shooting stars or Japanese-inspired dancing cranes using onyx and diamonds on their large wings, holding a particularly intense “golden yellow” pear-shaped sapphire (12.78ct) in an elegant brooch or a vivid pink sapphire and cornflower blue sapphire in a pair of earrings.