Cora Sheibani: ‘As long as I enjoy wearing jewellery, I’ll be making jewellery’

It was during a recent dinner with the fashion designer Erdem Moralıoğlu that Cora Sheibani had a revelation about her choice of career. The friends were discussing colours and discovered their shared love of yellow. ‘It’s been my favourite colour since I was a child,’ says the Zurich-born, London-based jewellery designer, adding that she also, rather unusually, loves the colour brown. ‘But it only occurred to me then that maybe I went into jewellery and gravitated to gold because it’s yellow.’

The daughter of the late art dealer and collector Bruno Bischofberger, Sheibani grew up in a home filled with exuberant colour, art and design. ‘When I moved into my own bedroom, I graduated from Ikea to Memphis,’ she says with a smile, explaining that her father allowed her to choose a favourite piece from the Milan-based design collective to mark the milestone moment.

Through her father, she was also exposed from a young age to vibrant works by Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Ettore Sottsass — all of whom Bischofberger represented and counted as friends. ‘I grew up in a family where every art form was considered equal,’ she says, adding that such discernment helped refine her eye for detail. ‘As long as you were great in your field — whether as an artist, designer, typographer or furniture-maker — you were valued and appreciated.’

It’s no surprise then that, over the past two decades, Sheibani has developed a jewellery practice situated at the intersection of art, design and exquisite craftsmanship. Her unique pieces, combining bold colour, sculptural forms and graphic lines — as well as unusual gemstones and non-traditional materials — have garnered a loyal following of aesthetically minded collectors around the world.

Talk turns to Colour & Contradiction (2016), one of her best-known collections, which includes earrings, rings and necklaces made from contrasting decorative gemstones cut in unusual ways. By way of example, she points to a pair of almond earrings featuring a central faceted dumortierite stone on a faceted malachite base. ‘I’m all about the juxtaposition of colours, textures and shapes,’ she says.

Then there are her three-strand pill necklaces crafted from gemstones including phosphosiderite, rose quartz and silex jasper. ‘People don’t always realise the range of colours that exist in nature,’ she says, pointing to a striking example featuring pills made from snowflake obsidian and malachite, each bisected with a thin band of faceted citrine. ‘You don’t expect to see these colour combinations together, but I think they work really well.’

Her jewels may be complex and intriguing, but they’re playful, too. The Copper Mould collection (2008), for instance, includes puddings, tarts and jellies topped with diamond sugar sprinkles, ruby berries and spinel cherries; while Eyes (2017) comprises pieces inspired by the eye-shaped patterns that occur in the animal kingdom. The oval ‘Predator’ rings are set with single faceted gemstones that evoke cats’ eyes when worn on each hand, as Sheibani intended. ‘I often use stones that were sold in pairs to make pairs of rings instead of earrings,’ she says. ‘I think it’s very chic to have rings of the same design on your left and right hands.’

Her focus, though, has always been on creating jewellery that is appreciated as much for its quality as for its design. That’s why she has her pieces made by master craftsmen in Switzerland, Germany and Italy. To emphasise the skill and artistry that goes into making the jewels, she often likes to show how they are put together: she points to a bracelet made from alternating elements of Swiss pebble and smoky quartz, in which the screws are visible. ‘Things may look simple, but they’re often really complex to make,’ she says.

Equally important, it seems, is wearability. ‘Whereas an artist just has to think about making a great work, a jewellery designer also has to think practically,’ she says. ‘Earrings, for instance, mustn’t be too heavy. They need to sit right. And they need to move enough without getting in the way of your hair.’ She gestures to a pair of drop earrings from Pottering Around (2021), with platinum-set aquamarines that cascade from a rigid sculptural vessel made of dumortierite. ‘These are surprisingly light, and they have a wonderful movement and fluidity to them,’ she says, explaining that the earrings were the first she had made from platinum, which is more commonly used to set diamonds. ‘They also catch the light beautifully.’

These pieces are among the highlights of Sheibani’s first presentation in Paris, at Christie’s. Bringing together creations from across her career, it offers an introduction to her creative vision and playful approach to jewellery design. The exhibition coincides with Paris Haute Couture Week, which, according to Sheibani, was a strategic decision. ‘This week in Paris attracts a lot of international people who appreciate jewellery, art and design,’ she says. ‘It’s so wonderful to be getting this recognition in Paris, the historic epicentre of jewellery making.’

Sheibani finds inspiration in everything from art history and 20th-century design to all things domestic, including puddings, plant pots and ice-cream cones. ‘I started my business as a mother at home, so you could say I’m rooted in things that I’m around every day,’ she says. ‘But then I’ll do something very abstract, where it’s really about playing with different gemstones and the cut.’

Facets & Forms (2024) is a case in point. This collection, which explores the evolution of gemstone cutting, features pieces set with stones cut in different ways, so that light reflects and refracts in unexpected patterns. Highlights on show at Christie’s include a smoky quartz, aquamarine and champagne gold ‘Tetris’ brooch, a blue tourmaline ‘Little Candy’ ring and a pair of ‘Renaissance’ drop earrings with aquamarines and grey spinels that were inspired by a Renaissance ring with a central square-cut stone. ‘I think I look at old jewellery more than the average jeweller,’ she says. ‘I’ve got a huge library that I reference often.’

In addition to Roman, Renaissance and Baroque jewellery, Sheibani is particularly drawn to the Art Deco jewels of Jean Fouquet, Raymond Templier and Gérard Sandoz. ‘As third-generation jewellers, they had the freedom to create pieces that were not particularly commercial,’ she says. ‘Their experiments resulted in innovative designs that are now regarded as seminal in art history.’

Sheibani also revisits motifs, shapes and combinations seen in her earlier collections. Ice-cream cones, for instance, were first introduced in the Copper Mould collection and later reappeared in her most recent collection, Skin Deep (2025), this time set with cultured pearls, a material that until then she had hardly explored. Also on display is a pair of ‘Renaissance Pearl’ earrings incorporating Edison pearls, grey spinel and Malaya zircon, which, she says, ‘look really wonderful with something simple like a grey cashmere sweater. I want to make pieces that people will wear often, rather than overtly precious things that they’ll wear just two or three times in their life.’

She alights on the concept of a new collection, she says, by seeing what’s missing from her previous ones. ‘I usually go back to my recent sketchbooks and designs and ask myself, “What did I really like here?” And I go from there.’

Does she have any advice for new jewellery collectors? ‘Buy a piece that you really enjoy and could imagine yourself wearing every day for five years,’ she says. ‘And buy something that is good enough in design and quality to pass down.’

Is she concerned about her pieces dating? ‘Absolutely not,’ she says, firmly. ‘I think all great jewellery goes out of fashion. I want to create things that define the generation in which they’ve been created. If you have a piece from the 1980s you want it to look like it’s from the 1980s, otherwise nobody cares.’

With a solo booth at Salon Art + Design in New York in November, and one at TEFAF Maastricht in 2027, as well as the Christie’s exhibition, people certainly seem to care about Sheibani’s jewels. ‘It takes time to develop a career and for people to appreciate an artist and the full breadth of what they do,’ she says. ‘After more than 20 years in the business, I think people really value the diversity of what I’m able to produce as a designer and my ability to reinvent myself and come up with new designs and ideas.’

Sheibani’s enthusiasm for her craft is palpable. But what is her ultimate goal? ‘To continue to design pieces that people want to wear and own, that put a smile on their faces and make them feel and look great,’ she says. ‘I’m sure that my designs will evolve and change as I get older, but as long as I enjoy wearing jewellery, I’ll be making jewellery. That’s the best thing I can do.’

Cora Sheibani’s jewellery is on show 4-9 July 2026 (closed 5 July) at Christie’s in Paris

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