January 2011
Paper Thin
It's colder then a witches tit in a brass brazier here in Aspen, but the snow is good. There is not a person on the mountain and the light is extraordinary. I've been thinking about cutting stones very thin to bring light out of saturated stones that appear dark when faceted, a la stained glass. It's going to happen, and very soon. I find it very interesting how everything tends to work better after yoga. Between the Museums and the chairlift and the soft light through freezing snow, nascent ideas have taken a more defined shape. The sea grass will give way to this paper thin gem stone idea. I will be sure to make the inclusions in the stones part of the tenor of the pieces.
Posted by varney on 01/01/2011 in |
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Migration
This last weekend in New York before heading south. All the snow will certainly do nothing to enhance the nostalgia factor once things warm up. This past week I had the good fortune to discuss jewelry in some depth with an artist I greatly admire. She is a photographer of renown who I ran into by accident this summer in Aspen. She came into my jewelry show over the summer and informed me that her first job out of college was doing some work for my father at Carleton V ( a company now run by my brother, Sebastian). Our time in her studio was great fun, sharing ideas and looking at the volume of her work over the years. What came out of the whole affair was a joint project, where my jewelry will be photographed in her vernacular. I am delighted with the idea and the project to come. One of the things we touched on in admiring any kind of art, is the relevance of those first moments you see something, and the importance of the first impression. I always tell clients to listen to their gut and obey first impressions when buying jewelry or stones. Any time I have talked myself into, or out of a stone, I have been disappointed in the long run. The especially painful ones are the gorgeous stones I've talked myself out of buying. I remember every single one.
Posted by varney on 01/15/2011 in |
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A Featured Epcot Ring!
Loving the highlighted "Epcot Ring" in this months issue of Elite Traveler!
Our 18K yellow gold ring features over 20 bezel-set colorless diamonds and yellow sapphires in a familiar globe-like setting. We suggest you go and try in on in person.
Available at Bergdorf Goodman, New York, New York
$23,200.00
Pilgrimage
Each year in the beginning of February there is a gem show held in Tucson, AZ. It is the largest of its kind in the world and certainly the most interesting. There are others to be sure, such as the Hong Kong show and the intolerably staid Basel show outside of Zurich. However Tucson is by and away the fortune hunting capital of the gem world. The show takes over the city and venues appear everywhere. The show is one of my favorite weeks of the year, and I try to share wandering around the many sparkling drop sites with the people I enjoy most. This year will be no exception. What really makes the show special is that one never has any idea of what they may find. People handle Burmese rubies with white gloves, and right next door another guy dumps the contents from his backyard out of a pickup truck. I have purchased diamonds as well as a ton of petrified palm tree from Sumatra. It is certainly fecund ground for the imagination. There is something terribly romantic about the place. Warm up the earphones and explore rocks from every corner of the earth. There was one moment this summer, during a brief stop in Moab at a rock shop, that I got my first anticipatory buzz of Tucson. At the moment, it feels like Gem Show Eve. I am very proud to be staying at my favorite ranch in Tucson, White Stallion; friends to the hero of the recent Tucson tragedy, Bill Badger.
Posted by varney on 01/25/2011 in |
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If you missed it! Or if you have yet see...
If you missed seeing our fabulous all-platinum and diamond snake bracelet in December's Town & Country, here's your chance to take a look! This piece is designed as a one-of-a-kind snake “cuff”, comprised of over eighty realistically modeled vertebrae, embellished with circular-cut colorless diamonds to a specific pattern, leading to a tail of bead-set blue moonstone cabochons and full-cut colorless diamonds in 18-karat white gold; blue and rainbow moonstones retained with bead-set diamonds surrounded by a field of pave-set, full-cut colorless diamonds, further embellished with colorless diamonds in head structure to accentuate cats-eye chrysoberyl cabochons; mounted in platinum.
And currently on the stands, you can enjoy seeing our also one-of-a-kind Mississippi River Pearl and Cats-Eye Chrysoberyl Cicada Brooch. Centered by a natural Mississippi River Pear and capped with cats-eye chrysoberyl cabochons further embellished with colorless diamonds set in pave to approximately 6.11 carats; wings set with approximately 0.145 carats of colorless diamond; reverse with fancy grill; mounted in 18K yellow gold. It is a real creature of beauty.
Both pieces are available by calling Nicholas Varney Jewels at 212 223 1043.
Love for Three Oranges
Love for Three Oranges is a Russian opera written by Sergei Prokofiev that I saw at City Opera during a brief hiatus from the Metropolitan. It's a wonderful opera that isn't performed nearly enough. It came into my mind this morning because I have been listening to a lot of opera this weekend - and because I have finally come to terms that orange is my favorite color. My packaging is orange, all the ski clothes I buy are orange, and gem stones like fire opal, I constantly find myself using in new pieces. Orange is dramatic to a fault, but what makes the color especially wonderful is how identifiable it can be in conjunction with a second color. For instance, Dorothy Draper, the woman who started the company my father has owned for fifty years, combined orange with turquoise blue for a man named Howard Johnson - and now it is impossible to combine those two colors without thinking of that famous orange roof with blue walls. This morning, in preparations for Tucson, I have been looking for different silhouettes for large stones that I will be using in bracelets for this coming season. The idea of using fire opal and aquamarine is especially appealing to me. Blue and orange can work in jewelry especially well. The key to its success is the tone of the color. Too dark a blue and you've got too much of a collegiate look. The combination of light blue and orange will definitely reference the 50's, but its' a color combination that is brilliant and very intriguing. The 50's were a very color conscious time and jewelry should reference a color consciousness more than any other medium, save painting.
Posted by varney on 01/30/2011 in |
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