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Stefan Bayer - Award Winning Concepts

Bradley D. Weber's Neptune's Birth  - AGTA Spectrum Awards Winner - on display at the GIA Museum Exhibit in New York - Conch Shell Ring cut by Dr. Stefan Bayer Lapidaries

Cut by Dr. Stefan Bayer Lapidaries

Cut by Dr. Stefan Bayer Lapidaries

Stefan Bayer - Award Winning Concepts

Llyn Strong's Birth of Pearl won the Designer’s Award at the Cultured Pearl Association of America competition - Conch Shell Ring cut by Dr. Stefan Bayer Lapidaries

Cut by Dr. Stefan Bayer Lapidaries

Cut by Dr. Stefan Bayer Lapidaries

LONDON Talisman Gallery - Michael Zobel & Stefan Bayer

WHAT JEWELLERY MEANS TO ME

Jewellery has been a means for me to travel to countries and meet people I otherwise wouldn’t have had access to. I love research and reading about different cultures, and have a fascination for stones and minerals. I design my own collection of necklaces for Talisman Gallery. There are so many new natural materials being discovered all the time.

Jewellery is common to all cultures, throughout mankind’s history. It’s a sign and symbol of wealth, power, adornment, worship and cultural signifier for identity and belonging. If you think of a crown, it’s a symbol not just of status and power, but stands in itself for the idea of monarchy. The same is true of the wedding ring symbolising both love and commitment, and also the institution of marriage. In many tribal cultures silver or gold are portable wealth worn as a necklace or a belt. Some African tribes used elephant ivory carved into slices and worked into huge bracelets in the same way. In head-hunting tribes in Orissa in India, bronze amulets worn around the neck represented the number of heads collected.

The first piece of jewellery that I bought was a 19th century Austro-Hungarian silver, moonstone and peridot ring. I was fifteen. Later I gave it to my sister, so it’s still in the family. The first important piece I owned was a 21st birthday gift from my father, which I chose for myself. It was a silver and coral bead Khazakh necklace. I still have it.

My favourite stone has to be tourmaline – it is so versatile and comes in so many colours. The first piece I commissioned for myself, twenty years ago, was a Tom McEwan gold and watermelon tourmaline ring and I wear it almost every day.

If I were allowed to keep only one piece of jewellery from my personal collection, it would have to be the Michael Zobel collar I’m wearing in the photograph on the left. It’s rose-gold and platinum, set with a huge hand-cut aquamarine by Stefan Bayer — I commissioned this piece from Atelier Zobel in Germany about ten years ago and wear it for special occasions.

My fantasy-wish-list-piece of jewellery is Shaun Leane’s Queen of the Night necklace for Boucheron in diamonds and sapphires.

My fantasy piece of jewellery from history would be one of Tutankhamen’s pectoral pendants.

The most unusual piece of jewellery I’ve ever sold was a pair of foot-long enamel and silver Bukharan bracelets to the Rajab Museum in Kuwait. And the other was one of Simon Costin’s lacquered fish head brooches.

http://talismangallery.co.uk/what-jewellery-means-to-me/