Art Deco is a jewelry style that will never go out of style and continues to fascinate collectors and jewelers alike. Despite the trends, Art Deco jewelry is still worn today more than ever. For this reason, in this Planderful post, we will give a brief overview of the history of this style and you will discover Art Deco jewelry that brings you love and happiness.
Source: https://www.custommade.com/blog/art-deco-jewelry-custom-designs-inspirations-and-restorations/
The art behind Art Deco jewelry
Before going into detail about Art Deco jewelry, the history of Art Deco dates back to the early twentieth century when this artistic style originated and which was the origin of these captivating designs.
Art Deco was born in Paris in 1925. This artistic style is characterized by being an amalgam or combination of elements that have different characteristics. This fusion is a consequence of the influence of constructivism, art nouveau, or cubism, among others, and also of archeology and the discoveries made in the Egypt of the pharaohs.
After World War I, society needed a change of scenery and women refused to wear the clothes they had worn before the war. They started to wear simple and elegant clothes with straight lines, changed their hairstyle and their lifestyle, and all this caused a rethinking of jewelry as they were looking for new and fresh-looking jewelry.
What does Art Deco consist of?
In Art Deco, several trends converge within the same respect for an aesthetic coherent with the means of production. We cannot forget the very interesting contribution to this new modern and liberating mind that the Parisian dressmakers and jewelers of the 1920s and 1930s made to this new modern and liberating mind. This was the time of great creators such as Paul Poiret, Coco Chanel, or Louis Cartier, who invented "detachable trimmings and ornaments so light in design and structure that they could adapt to the skin like a fabric.
Although this style of Art Deco jewelry is later than Art Nouveau jewelry, it did not seek to replace it, both styles are different. The most enduring and popular jewelry style is Art Deco. While it lasted only a decade (1920-1930), it had a renaissance in 1960 that has continued to this day.
Art Deco jewelry is synonymous with elegance, exclusivity, and always the right choice when wearing a piece of jewelry that never goes out of style.
Modernism as a precursor to Art Deco
Modernism has a great influence on Art Deco especially in the use of nature to shape jewelry. Flowers, plants, and animals, all of them are very common in modernist jewelry and also in Art Deco jewelry.
However, Modernism had a rejection of materials traditionally considered rich, and in jewelry, it made this clear by using materials such as tortoiseshell, horns, or bones. Masriera was the standard bearer of this movement.
Masriera was the goldsmith who changed the mentality of all jewelry in Spain at the beginning of the 20th century. He specialized in plique-à-jour, a new technique of vitreous enameling with which he was very successful and which became a personal hallmark.
Thanks to this technique and the enamel, Masriera was able to give greater reality to forms related to nature, such as butterflies, dragonflies, or birds; or to fantastic figures such as elves and dragons. Jewels inspired other great goldsmiths in the 1920s with the birth of Art Deco.
The Art Deco and modernist jewels are a great value and are a safe bet for the elegance and vintage avant-garde of a century ago.
Source: https://www.townandcountrymag.com/style/jewelry-and-watches/g35799093/art-nouveau-jewelry/
Gems, stones, and precious metals in the Art Deco
The Egypt of the pharaohs, and the exoticism of Japan, China, and India were an important part of the inspiration in Art Deco jewelry in which the combination of the past and modernity play an indisputable role in the designs. Streamlined, rectangular, symmetrical patterns, diverse color combinations, and abstract motifs make up these avant-garde designs. The pavé technique and technological improvements in diamond cutting allowed designers to create geometric cuts that dazzled the ladies of the time, as well as those of today.
The precious gems that became more prominent in the Art Deco period were diamonds, rubies, sapphires, emeralds, coral, ivory, mother-of-pearl, and quartz crystal; white gold, platinum, and silver. Jewels in the shape of flowers, plants, and animals were created with them, and Egyptian beetles were incorporated into the elaborations. Jade from the Orient, with its mysterious and beneficial properties for health, was incorporated into the designs, as were Egyptian-style headdresses, bracelets, and shoulder brooches.
The combination of these elements, the new techniques, the daring designs, and those inspired by faraway countries gave new femininity and exoticism to jewelry and therefore to the women who wore them, as they do now, a century later, because Art Deco jewelry will never go out of fashion.
Men want to participate in this revolution in jewelry and use pieces as elegant as these in the purest Art Deco style, where we see the patterns that were established in each piece, rectangles, and symmetries.
Art Deco and Cartier
If we focus on jewelry we can not fail to highlight the work of Cartier. He was one of the greatest exponents of this style at the time. Cartier presented his works in the aforementioned exhibition, with the curiosity that they were separated from the rest of his colleagues, exhibiting them in the fashion pavilion and not in the jewelry pavilion.
Although at first, the Art Deco jewelry had diamonds as protagonists, little by little colors were introduced in the designs. Even so, many spectacular monochromatic pieces can be found. The great innovation introduced in these designs was their mounting on platinum skeletons. This made the pieces enormously flexible and light. Allowing meticulous and extremely detailed works, like the ones you see in the pictures.
Source: https://www.1stdibs.com/blogs/the-study/cartier-art-deco-jewelry/
If you liked this article about Art Deco jewelry that brings you love and happiness, don't forget to visit Planderful's website and discover our Art Deco jewelry collection.
