An artist’s palette of bright hues and boat sails gently billowing in the wind are translated into a collection of gloriously colourful Boodles jewellery this spring.
It was during a visit to the Cornish seaside town of St Ives that Rebecca Hawkins, head of design at Boodles, came across the work of Parisian artist Sonia Delaunay at an exhibition held at the Tate St Ives gallery. Rebecca was particularly taken with the 1914 abstract painting Electric Prisms, which became the starting point for the bold colours and geometric diamond settings in the new Boodles Prism collection.
While the lines between art and jewellery have always been blurred, Rebecca has taken the colourful palette and abstract geometric lines of the paintings and turned them into a very wearable collection, which perfectly captures the season’s sunny mood. The angular shapes of the boat sails bobbing across the bay of St Ives have also incorporated into the designs.
Speaking to Rebecca, she told us that the bright hues of the collection are quite a departure for Boodles: “We have often gone for more pastel shades and in this particular collection the colours have a real exuberance about them. I wanted to go for a sunny palette of spring colours with vibrant blues, greens, pinks and yellows. It is an uplifting set of colours but the exuberance is combined with a dose of restraint because of the interplay with the geometric and organic lines.”
She adds that the jewels are likely to appeal to confident women who are not afraid to be bold with their accessories. “Perhaps they already have a diamond jewellery collection and are looking for something that adds a new dimension,” she explains.
It is a common misconception that bright colours are difficult to pull off, but the multitude of hues in these jewels make them surprisingly easy to wear. They can be combined with different colours to match the individual stones, but also look great against a dark background, and really pop when paired with summery white or cream.
The Prism collection encompasses bracelets, pendants, rings and earrings crafted from white gold and set with diamonds and nine coloured gemstones - including green beryl, red tourmaline, green tourmaline, yellow beryl, rubellite and peridot - in various combinations. The bold colour groupings include vibrant yellow beryls paired with sea blue tanzanite, and fiery pink rubellites offset by lime green peridots.
Rebecca says that the multi-gem Boodles bracelets, which resemble a delicious line-up of pick ‘n’ mix sweets, are all unique as the design team did not want to compromise on gemstone quality in order to keep the size and order of the gems the same. “The arrangement of the gemstones is slightly different but the colours are still within the same spectrum.”
At the heart of the new Boodles collection sits a stunning one-of-a-kind high jewellery collar, which includes all nine coloured gemstones framed by diamonds.
