Jewelry designers don’t use enough colors, says Myriam Coencas of Paris’ Torre-Alba, and so she colors her sculptured crystal collection, noted for their refined and voluminous finish.
The idea is to tint the crystal with any color of choice and to cut the quartz the same way as with precious stones. Mrs. Coencas said in an interview in Hong Kong. Treated crystals can either be shiny- or matte- transparent, polished or unpolished opaque, “thus offering great diversity of colors,” she said.
“I mix colors for the effect they bring,” said Mrs. Coencas, who applied rainbow color combinations to her new crystal line, which remains new to Paris and elsewhere.
On her stylish gemset collection, she explains: “It is also not important for the stones to be pure and color perfect. For example, emeralds: they are not the green people expect to see. I pay more attention to the finish, the shine. Emeralds need not be restricted to one color: I want the color that fits the jewelry in my dream.”
Each jewelry piece from Mrs. Coencas’ crystal line pays tribute to Paris. They are individually named: Concorde, Trocadero, Opera, Renoir, Van Gogh and Cezanne. The gemset collection, in particular, is named after the Impressionists who include Cezanne and Gaughin.
The 38-year-old designer, also a painter, was to show her new collection in a store-opening in Chicago on October 26th. In February, New York’s fashionable women first saw her big ear-rings and rings. Even Singaporean and Japanese buyers are opting for big pieces, said Mrs. Coencas, whose jewelry range from 1,000 U.S. dollars.
Big “aerodynamique” rings that reach out to the knuckle, ear-rings which hug and cover half of the lobe and thick, rounded bracelets which wrap the wrist have only been available commercially this year, she continued. They all naturally bear the stamp of good quality – the Torre-Alba signature. Torre-Alba was Mrs. Coencas’ mother’s maiden name.