Stones and jewelry as the quest for beauty in small things .
A revolution.
Like all self-respecting revolutions, it has the ambition to change the world. Once a man, if I remember correctly his name was Heraclitus, said, that “knowledge changes the subject”. Even you who are reading these lines, if you share the soundness of the search for beauty in small things you will change yourself, and the world around you to the best.
This website isn’t a catalogue nor a pulpit. To give birth to a new gemology and a new jewelry, we need participation and collaboration of both our customers and colleagues. We ask for cooperation, disputation and reciprocation of ideas.
We start from scratch, and examine two important aspects of our work:
1) – What are the reasons for the current crisis of gemology and jewelry?
a.) Commercial: The globalization has resulted in a generalized flattening of fashion, design, labels (the so-called ‘signatures’, literally). The new emerging markets may offer products identical to those of the ‘big names’ performed with very low labor costs, hence create confusion among consumers.
b.) Technological: As the market advertises the same products, the market requires the same products. Since the same products are in short supply, even different products are made similar to the ones required. In other words, technology is able to change some characteristics of the stones to make them similar to those which the market demands. So, in addition to natural stones and syntetic stones, there is an amazing amount of natural stones that have been changed in their color and in their clarity. This creates confusion among consumers.
c.) Cultural: Jewels, in the past, characterized some social categories that no longer exist. We lack real reasons to wear new jewels; a person with feeling will not be satisfied by an advertisement. If there are no valid cultural links, confusion is created among consumers .
d.) Magical: The cheap armchair magic of a stone paired to the zodiac, or indispensable to cure you from your “streptodynphron”, is so low-level that it regards only low-level stones. Since anyone can have their say, confusion is created among consumers.
e.) Reliability: Absence of crystal clear commercial, scientific, technical landmarks, creates confusion in the consumer.
2) On which values can you base a new jewelry and gemology?
A disoriented consumer tends to renounce to the product, or to trust in the big names. Unfortunately, the misinformation can bring benefit to those who promote the same misinformation. We are for a correct information that goes beyond the advertising slogans. On our opinion, the “search for beauty in the small things” is the unifying cultural element of the process that leads to stones and metal turn into jewel.
a.) Commercial: We say “No!” to the globalization of tastes and designs, “Yes!” to the personalization of jewelry. The “Quest for beauty in small things ” leads to the enrichment of one’s own territory, history, craftsmen, stones and symbols.
b.) Technological: The “Quest for beauty in small things”, teaches that there is nothing beautiful in homologation and in counterfeiting, so the authenticity of the stone must be respected at all costs. Stones with inclusions and particular natural designs shall be promoted, and the uniqueness rather than the similarity to a role model of each stone shall be emphasized.
c.) Cultural: The “Quest for beauty in small things”, requires an ethics screening of one’s work, so the stones utilized should not have stories of violence behind them, eg. pearls: the result of oyster vivisection, eg coral: to obtain it, coral reefs that took twenty years to form are devastated. Not to mention Ivory!
d.) Magical: The subtle magic that permeates everything has to be cuddled, held gently, because such is the meaning of “Quest for beauty in small things”. We rigorously condemn any kind of charlatanism which only aims to steal the good faith of the simple people.
e.) Trustworthiness: If all the work is done with scrupulousness and seriousness, all the commercial chain will benefit from it. In addition to having worked with satisfaction, there will be the pride of having spread a message of great importance: the invitation to participate in the “Quest for beauty in small things”.
The first step in our new jewelry has been defined as the “Quest for beauty in small things”.
A second point is now demanded. Stone and metal must coexist in the jewel, creating a synergy and balance without which the jewel would cease to be a jewel, coming to be just a decorative object. Since I don’t recall having ever read anything on this, even if the issue is a basic problem in jewelry, I shall now anticipate some elements of the psychology of the jewel, which I’ll analyze later on. I will talk about the plasticity of the metal and the rigidity of stone.