Rock Crystal, Rare Pearls and a Welsh Legend: Five Jewellery Stories That Caught My Eye This Week
This week’s jewellery news is rich in detail. Jessica McCormack opens her first boutique on the West Coast of America, Vhernier and Buccellati bring two very different expressions of Italian craftsmanship to Venice, Messika introduces colour to a celebrated collection, and Boodles turns to medieval Welsh legend for its latest creations. In each case, the most interesting stories are found in the details, whether a room, a technique, an irregular pearl or an unexpected material pairing.
Jessica McCormack: A World Built Around Day Diamonds
Jessica McCormack has opened her first West Coast boutique at South Coast Plaza in Orange County, her second American store following Madison Avenue and her fourth standalone location globally. The opening follows strong demand from Californian clients, who now place more online orders with the brand than clients in any other market worldwide. The 1,600-square-foot boutique brings together McCormack’s signature Day Diamonds, one-of-a-kind creations and new collections.
Anyone familiar with McCormack’s flagship in Mayfair, London, will recognise the aesthetic. Layered and distinctly English in spirit, it brings together antique furniture, contemporary art, patterned textiles, books, ceramics and objects she has collected. The South Coast Plaza boutique extends the atmosphere of 7 Carlos Place in Mayfair, with hand-printed Mauny wallpapers, Pierre Frey and Lee Jofa fabrics, parquet flooring and timber cabinetry. The effect is closer to a private drawing room than a conventional jewellery boutique.
Hand printed wallpaper, collected furniture and architectural details bring the layered character of McCormack’s Mayfair townhouse to the West Coast.
One room is wrapped in muted green joinery and softened by floral upholstery, books and plants. Another shifts into warmer rose and ochre tones, with arched openings and wooden vitrines that sit comfortably within the interior rather than announcing themselves as retail fixtures. That relationship between jewellery and interior is central to McCormack’s world. Her Day Diamonds are designed to be worn every day rather than reserved for special occasions, and the boutique gives that philosophy a physical setting. Diamonds sit among art, textiles and furniture, in keeping with the relaxed way McCormack approaches fine jewellery.
Soft colour, antique furniture and contemporary art create the kind of intimacy McCormack has long used to make jewellery feel deeply personal.
A London sensibility lands in California, with Jessica McCormack’s domestic approach to fine jewellery turning the boutique into something closer to a private home than a conventional boutique.
The boutique treats jewellery as part of a lived interior, placing diamonds alongside art, books and objects rather than isolating them behind the usual codes of luxury retail.
The South Coast Plaza opening marks Jessica McCormack’s first address on the West Coast, extending a retail language first established in Mayfair and more recently on Madison Avenue.
Vhernier: A Menagerie Heads to Venice
Vhernier’s animal brooches may be playful, but they also showcase the Milanese Maison’s technical skill and distinctive use of materials. This September, a selection will travel to Venice for Homo Faber 2026, the month-long celebration of contemporary craftsmanship held at the Fondazione Giorgio Cini on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore.
Frogs, caterpillars, crabs, shells, turtles and penguins are reduced to smooth, sculptural forms. The frog appears poised to leap, the caterpillar curls with a sense of movement and the penguin is rendered through a few strong contrasts. None of the pieces relies on literal realism, with their character emerging through proportion, colour and surface. Central to that effect is Vhernier’s Trasparenze technique. Pure rock crystal is polished into a dome and laid over materials including jade, turquoise, lapis lazuli and mother of pearl. The crystal deepens the colour beneath it, creating an almost liquid effect while preserving the smoothness of the form.
Pinguino brooch in white gold, diamonds, white mother of pearl, cornelian, onyx and rock crystal, bringing a touch of wit to a richly worked jewel.
With its focus on the highest levels of craft, Homo Faber is a natural fit for Vhernier. Its animal brooches bring together exceptional stone carving, technical ingenuity and an adventurous approach to materials in jewels that showcase the sculptural quality for which the Maison is known.
Tucano brooch in jade, opal and cornelian.
Bruco brooch in white gold, diamonds, turquoise and rock crystal.
Bruco brooch in onyx and diamonds.
Bruco brooch in white gold, diamonds, jade and rock crystal.
Bruco brooch in white gold, diamonds, white mother of pearl and rock crystal.
Bruco brooch in yellow agate and diamonds.
Buccellati: A Bird Born from an Irregular Pearl
Buccellati will also appear at Homo Faber, but its approach to nature could hardly be more different. The Maison is presenting works that showcase its celebrated fur and feather techniques, including a feathered fan made using the Furry technique developed in the 1960s by Gianmaria Buccellati, son of the Maison’s founder, Mario Buccellati. The fan’s lifelike plumage was created from extremely thin sheets of silver, worked entirely by hand to capture the texture and lightness of individual feathers.
The 2002 Bird of Paradise brooch is easily my favourite piece of jewellery I have seen this week. Designed around an irregular Scaramazza pearl, it is a great example of allowing the natural form of a gem to guide the design. Here, its shape becomes the body of the bird, with white gold plumage engraved using the Maison’s Rigato technique and yellow gold defining the head, beak and eye.
Gianmaria Buccellati’s 2002 Bird of Paradise brooch from the Buccellati Vintage Collection, a study of plumage in which layered, highly worked feathers give the jewel an extraordinary sense of movement and life.
Silver Feather Furry brooch, where individually worked feathers build a sense of volume and movement, turning silver into something almost textile in its softness.
Messika: So Move in Colour
Messika’s new So Move Colour designs give one of the Maison’s best-known diamond collections a colourful update. The familiar moving diamond is still there, but the all-diamond setting of the original So Move has been replaced with white mother of pearl and rose gold, amazonite and yellow gold, or onyx and white gold. The collection comprises pendant and earrings and will be available at Harrods and Selfridges from November, with prices beginning at £7,570.
Of the three, the onyx is the most graphic, its glossy black surface contrasting with the brilliance of the diamond. Mother of pearl has a softer lustre, while the green-blue amazonite takes So Move furthest from its diamond-only origins. After Messika embraced colour in the Terres de Contrastes High Jewellery collection this summer, it is great to see the Maison bringing some of that same spirit to its signature white diamonds.
So Move Colour necklace in white mother of pearl and 18 carat rose gold, introducing a softer, more luminous expression of the collection’s graphic design.
So Move Colour earrings in amazonite and 18 carat yellow gold, with Messika’s signature moving diamond.
So Move Colour earrings in white mother of pearl and 18 carat rose gold.
So Move Colour earrings in onyx and 18 carat white gold.
Boodles: A Welsh Legend Blooms in Diamonds
For its new Posie collection, Boodles has turned to one of the oldest surviving Welsh legends for inspiration. The story of Culhwch and Olwen forms part of the Mabinogion, a collection of medieval Welsh tales encompassing mythology, folklore and Arthurian legend. According to the tale, white flowers spring up wherever Olwen walks, and it is this enchanting detail that Boodles has translated into jewels.
The motif is simple and classic – four white diamond petals surround a rare Argyle pink diamond – and the flowers are wonderfully delicate, with the soft blush of the pink bringing warmth to them. I also love the fact that Boodles has taken just one small detail from a centuries-old story and made it the focus of the collection. The idea of Olwen leaving flowers in her footsteps is such a charming one and translates naturally into these easy-to-wear jewels.
Boodles’ Posie ring translates Olwen’s mythical trail of white flowers into four white diamond petals, centred with exceptionally rare Argyle pink diamonds.
Until Next Week
There has been a real sense of lightness in this week’s stories, from coloured stones and playful brooches to flowers, movement and beautiful interiors. Next week, I’ll be back with the first of the autumn jewellery news and plenty of new launches, exhibitions and collections to share.
WORDS
Bianca Blanari approaches jewellery as architecture in miniature, where form, structure, balance and elevation are distilled into objects of intimate scale. Bianca joined Katerina Perez as Club Editor and contributing writer in March.
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