For those lucky enough to get along to London Fashion Week this year, you may have seen the wonderful gems and jewels on display at the BFC Rock Vault. Curated by Stephen Webster, the Rock Vault is a venue aimed at showcasing and nurturing the very best jewellery design talent in the UK.
This year sees a very special BFC Rock Vault joint venture, devised in conjunction with the International Palladium Board: the Red Carpet Earrings collaboration. The 10 designers selected to participate took part in a very unique process. Rather than simply commission them to create palladium earrings, the designers saw their finished red carpet pieces come to life through a combination of traditional craftsmanship and state-of-the-art technology. London-based creative agency Inition took 3D scans of each of the designers' heads, then, using the latest 3D printers, the company produced stylised physical recreations of their heads, on which were displayed each designer's jewellery. For a bold contrast with the bright white palladium of the earrings, the heads were matt black.
The 10 designers on show are new addition Alice Cicolini, Fernando Jorge, Hannah Martin, Husam El Odeh, Imogen Belfield, Jo Hayes Ward, Melanie Georgapoulos, Sophie Bille Brahe, and Tomasz Donocik, and naturally the designs were wildy varied, from Donocik's Art Deco delights, to the cascading pearl and palladium power of Melanie Georgapoulos, and the delicately realised helix swirls in Imogen Blefield's earrings.
Last year saw the International Palladium Board make a mark with its Palladium Visions campaign, and with the help of these talented minds and BFC Rock Vault, its first collaboration of 2013 has got the year off to a flying start.
