The ancient but new jewels by Chris Davies

The unique pieces by Chris Davies, a New York designer who uses ancient techniques for his jewelery ♦ ︎

In New York there is a jewel artist who loves to discover and use ancient processing techniques. It is, sure, an attitude not widespread in the city that more than any other is a symbol of dynamism, change, speed. Chris Davies, however, in college has studied ancient civilizations and art history. When he become a jeweler, he decided to combine his passions and creates pieces made up of hundreds of tiny 18-karat gold beads (the granulation technique used in ancient Greece), or he creates jewels with the cloisonné technique, a particular enamelling, difficult realization, which dates back to ancient Egypt, was in vogue during the Byzantine Empire and more recently in China. Technique that used for the recent collection, Silk Road.

An art form which, he explained, will soon disappear, because only the oldest artisans are still able to use. Or Davies weaves 18-karat gold pearls on steel wires. Each piece, he explains, takes two to six months to complete. There are also jewels made of rare stones, selected for their particular shape or appearance: tourmalines, demantoids, citrines (but green), moonstones (but peach-colored), sapphires (but orange) and so on. An example is the Delos necklace, made with the 18-carat white gold granulation technique, hematite, white topaz and blue-green amethyst. Prices? Chris Davies’ jewels are unique pieces, like the price of his jewels: on average from 10,000 to 20,000 dollars.