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Daring materials and experimental design infused with brilliant colors define the work of Brazilian-born designer Cecilia Rodrigues. After a career in her family's real estate business, her initial foray in jewelry design began in 1987, mainly designing pieces for her own use. By 1995 however, she had established herself as a creative force and the Brazilian Museum of Sculpture honored her with an individual exhibition of 100 pieces. It was at this exhibition that she conveyed her message of expressing jewelry as art.
Inspired by the wealth of gem-stones found in her country, the Sao Paolo native continually tests the eye of the beholder, much like the jewelers of the Art Nouveau period, whose use of plique-à-jour enamel, glass and horn captivated its audience. Fascinated with light, iridescence, texture, movement, color, form and shape, she is not confined by the traditional boundaries of design or manufacturing. ,
Chinese mother-of-pearl gambling chips, Japanese netsuke, antique ivory intaglios, all have found their place in her work, either as a clasp, a pendant or as links in a bracelet combining workmanship, design and history into one unique and individual piece.
Themes have also emerged from her collection. "Insecta" as one exhibit was entitled, took inspiration from the natural world using brilliant tourmalines, coral, bone, wood, jade and other materials transformed into cicadas, dragonflies, crickets and butterflies. But not one to just merely design insects, she also used real insects such as a necklace made entirely of metallic green Sternocera Aequisignata beetles.
Yet, perhaps her most recognized line is that which utilizes galuchat or "shagreen", as it is mostly commonly known. Named after Jean-Claude Galuchat, a master leather worker for Louis XV, shagreen is a leather made from the skin of sharks or stingrays. This complex and challenging material was first worked by Japanese craftsmen in the 8th century to cover small medicine bottles, sword handles and sheaths. Emerging later in Tibet, China and Korea, shagreen can be found in many important decorative objects produced during the 1920's in Europe. The distinct texture and structure is formed by small disks as seen on the featured ring and ear clips. The soft avocado green color that she has achieved contrasts to the faceted intensity of the tourmaline and she has cantilevered the stone in the ring over next finger giving it a very distinct look.
Confident and bold, she appeals to a woman who is unafraid to make a statement or to be noticed. To quote, "My creative energy is set in ,
motion through the powerful stimuli flowing from the objects themselves, these incomparable, original creations of nature. From the vibrations of the crude material and the endless possibilities of combination, I exercise total freedom of association: the design possiblilities are limitless."
AN UNUSUAL SET OF DRUSY QUARTZ, CULTURED PEARL AND COLORED DIAMOND JEWELRY, BY CECILIA RODRIGUES
Details
AN UNUSUAL SET OF DRUSY QUARTZ, CULTURED PEARL AND COLORED DIAMOND JEWELRY, BY CECILIA RODRIGUES
A brooch, designed as a carved gray drusy quartz leaf, suspending a detachable silvery gray cultured pearl measuring approximately 12.30 mm, mounted in 18K white gold; and a pair of black drusy quartz, colored diamond and 18K gold ear clips en suite, in an original leather box
With maker's mark for Cecilia Rodrigues (2)
A brooch, designed as a carved gray drusy quartz leaf, suspending a detachable silvery gray cultured pearl measuring approximately 12.30 mm, mounted in 18K white gold; and a pair of black drusy quartz, colored diamond and 18K gold ear clips en suite, in an original leather box
With maker's mark for Cecilia Rodrigues (2)