Synonymous with excellence, high jewelry is a source of wonderment at each stage involved in making diamond jewelry. Thousands of cumulative hours of skilled work, expertly mastered and driven by passion. The Messika Atelier is a place of research whose work draws at times on innovation in jewelry, for which it knows the secret, and at times on an ancestral creative process, shared by all the grande maisons. A team of designers, jewelers, setters and polishers, coordinated by Valérie Messika, turn the most wonderous dreams into reality.
The different stages of making diamond jewelry
The breathtaking beauty of a high jewelry creation hints at expert craftsmanship that brings together technical, artistic and aesthetic skills. The idea first starts to take shape with an outline made in pencil. Then, after making many sketches, the designer paints the jewelry with gouache in its actual size. A striking image of realism, which serves as an essential reference for consideration by the team. This pictorial representation will have taken 30 hours work for the Diamond Whirl necklace. Then, each diamond selected for its size, purity, and quality is placed in the gold structure - springs, chatons, stones, settings, etc. - that the jeweler makes. After mounting, the piece is assembled and meticulously welded using a blowtorch, steps that determine the final shape of the piece of jewelry. The jewelry is polished both before and after setting, until it reaches the desired mirror effect. These delicate touches reveal the brilliance of the diamonds. After dozens, even hundreds of hours, setting is when the jewelry really comes to life: the setter sculpts and polishes the material, adjusting the stones so that they lay on the skin as if they were floating.
The Diamond Whirl necklace, The Snow Queen
A swirl of pear-shaped diamonds, this composition that wraps around the neck like a ribbon of draped sparks has taken the Atelier 506 hours to create. This string of diamonds has been crafted with exacting precision: the diamond necklace delicately hugs the shape of the neck, encircling its base without constraining it, and emphasising its slender curve. The incredible suppleness of this string of stones is an innovation of the Maison. In a balancing act, the spiral structure of the necklace supports 88 stones of increasing size. In its centre, the most majestic 5.5 carat pear-shaped diamond ripples in the light in an enchanting dance. A remarkable drape which highlights the painstaking work of the Atelier.
