'Any object is beautiful when placed against a dark background. The contrast effect heightens its power," said Pierre Hardy, creative director of Hermès jewellery.
The movement of shadow and its relationship with light are reflected in the new high-jewellery collection titled Les Jeux De L'Ombre.
"We always talk about light and sparkle in jewellery, so I wanted to take the opposite approach," said Hardy. "In the performing arts, I've always loved the incandescent effect of the spotlights as well as the shadows they cast onto the stage floor. I find this distortion of light very appealing. The collection is a response to this desire: to poeticise the form taken by shadows."
His seventh high-jewellery collection for Hermès includes the rose gold Lueurs Du Jour ensemble of which the shadow takes the material form of black jade, worked by hand to give it a satin finish.
On the Ombres Mobiles pieces the shadow is black satin-finish titanium, set like a precious metal into the rose gold.
Couleurs Du Jour Triptych necklace with sliding mother-of-pearl panels that open up to reveal a hidden medallion.
"My research deepens with every new collection. So I don't get caught up in a kind of classicism imposed by the stones, I always start with form," he said. "I sketch, and then I look how to shape the material to the sketches. Over time I've noticed that, in design, if you respect the materials, anything is possible. While normally everything is a matter of intensity, radiance, and reflection, I went in search of the opposite by giving form to the shadows they cast."
As the light travels through this collection, the jewellery pieces appear to break free from their shadow and radiate an intense and colourful glow, enhanced by their gemstones in dégradé or monochrome shades.
The shadow detaches and separates from the stones in the Miroir D'Ombre necklace centred by a cushion-cut yellow diamond and a dégradé of blue sapphires.
"Yes, the shadow divides the jewellery into two," he said. "We've all as children tried to detach from our shadow, and here, in the same way, I started with the simplest shapes in jewellery and extended them with the effect created by the shadow they produce."
The Triptyques Lumière necklace and ring mechanically open and close, concealing their treasures or exposing them to the light. Hardy designed them like altarpieces and refers to them as "lightboxes".
The Couleurs Du Jour Triptych necklace features black jade outer panels and mother-of-pearl inner panels that open up to reveal a hidden medallion.
Chaîne D'Ombre necklace with a juxtaposition of white diamonds shadowed by dégradés of black spinels and blue sapphires.
"I wanted to convey the idea that shadows contain light and that they conceal it like a secret. Shadows have an inner light. I had this intuition one day when looking at Caravaggio's painting and his chiaroscuros. So I designed these pieces to be tiny theatres that could both hide and show off this light," he explained.
On the Chaîne D'Ombre necklace, the juxtaposition of flat-cut white diamonds shadowed by dégradés of black spinels and blue sapphires gives the chaîne d'ancre chain link its volume.
Gracefully flexing across the skin, this necklace required almost 2,000 hours of meticulous craftsmanship, including 700 hours of gemsetting to individually and carefully position each stone.
Hardy surprisingly used rough, uncut stones, chosen for their intensity, for the Lumières Brutes rings and earrings. By filtering the light, these stones produce variations of a single shade.
Lumières Brutes ring set with one rough yellow diamond, with shadow in diamonds as well as yellow and brown diamonds.
"It's been a dream of mine: to leave the stones as they are. It came from something I experienced when visiting a gem-cutter, who showed me diamonds and tourmalines," he said. "When I shined my phone's flashlight on them, the light cast shapes around each of them. I have simply highlighted the shadow projected by the stone. I worked almost like a geologist, as close to the mineral as possible. Projecting light onto a rough stone is a revelation, a wondrous experience."
The creative director uniquely plays with light and shadow in the Les Jeux De L'Ombre collection, which will allow women to transform themselves through the high jewellery.
"You could say that the shadow extends the very regulated world of jewellery; it offers a reverse perspective," he said "By incorporating the shadow into the pieces, I'm looking to make a precious element of something that on the face of it isn't precious. My pleasure is one of discovery: shadow is the light's treasure."
Ombres Mobiles bracelet and ring with the shadows in black satin-finish titanium and brown diamonds.
Lueurs Du Jour mono earring set with diamonds, brown diamonds, and moonstones and shadow in black jade.
Triptyques Lumière ring with pavé-set brown diamonds and set with black jade, blue chalcedony, moonstone and diamond.
Two rough spessartite garnets are shadowed by dangling precious stones in the Lumieres Brutes earrings.
