New York-Based Master Jeweler Ray Griffiths Showcases Joyful Holiday Jewels

Fantastic jewellery’s match and motion on the physique is simply as essential as its aesthetic magnificence and artisanal excellence, and opulent but light-weight Crownwork® creations by New York-based grasp jeweler Ray Griffiths embody this multi-dimensional reality. Having apprenticed in his native Australia with a high-end jeweler who specialised in restoring vintage tiaras and different upmarket adornments, Griffiths is internationally acknowledged for creating Crownwork® jewels, that are as chic-looking and brilliantly engineered as they’re straightforward to put on. 2021 marks the twentieth anniversary of the founding of Ray Griffiths Fantastic Jewellery. This author caught up with the natty and lately naturalized U.S. citizen as he offered a number of vacation jewels in his Fifth Avenue atelier.

Whereas all creations by Griffith embody distinctive kinds and ideas, it’s price noting that also they are contributing new life to noble jewellery traditions. “European artisans invented crownwork to type the underside of tiaras and crowns from the 1600s by means of the 1800s,” Griffiths begins. “Again within the day, a structured, foundational form for the headgear was made after which hollowed out to create a light-weight but robust metallic grid on the reverse of the items. This lattice-like grid on the underside shaped the piece’s power and structural integrity.” Using these technical and aesthetic ideas as the idea for his first fantastic jewellery collections, Griffiths began designing and hand-fabricating jewels that includes totally seen; 18-karat golden Crownwork® for every thing from earrings to pendant necklaces, outsized but light-weight hyperlink bracelets, marriage ceremony ring units and even excessive jewellery glittering with essential diamonds or coloured gems. (Griffiths trademarked Crownwork® in 2014.)

Presenting a blossoming lemon yellow and Madeira citrine bracelet that wraps simply across the wrist, Griffiths explains, “Whereas it has visible quantity owing to the Crownwork® setting, this 18-karat gold jewel is in actual fact light-weight. One of the best jewels adorn with colour, gentle and exquisite compositions whereas transferring gracefully with out weighing you down.” Jewellery is and all the time has been a type of colour remedy for the wearer and for the world, Griffiths ventures. “In the course of the vacation season’s occasions, pleasant celebrations and marathon household gatherings,” he continues, “the best way that jewels match on the finger, weigh on the ears, roll on the wrist or drape across the neck could make an uplifting distinction in the way you look, transfer and really feel. At its most interesting,” he continues, “Jewellery spreads optimistic energies and colours to all those that see it. We want pure vitality, feel-good jewellery now greater than ever, given the challenges that Covid-19 has introduced into our lives.”

The citrine bracelet radiates sunny and wealthy gemstone colours that illuminate the wearer day and evening. “It drapes across the wrist and is stabilized by the small however robust hinges between the pale yellow citrines,” Griffiths explains. “All components transfer comfortably on the wrist because the wearer adjustments positions, and since the bracelet is articulated in an East-West sample for ease of motion, it feels fairly comfy whereas additionally wanting luxurious.” The artwork of Crownwork® additionally animates his traditional 18-karat gold European gypsy, excessive domed Crownwork® band. “This makes for an amazing reward because it’s a signature piece that’s stylistically and structurally robust, complementary to different jewels and excellent for on a regular basis put on,” he suggests.

For many who choose dramatic rings with celebration energy, nevertheless, Griffiths affords a 46-carat, easily tumbled amethyst cocktail ring that rises excessive above the hand. The splendid colour of this gemstone will be in comparison with purple silk velvet. In response to Griffiths, “This ring is so fastidiously designed and the stone sits up to now above the finger that should you make a fist with it, you by no means really feel it.” Certainly, this good purple mountain of a hoop is a design treasure with an arched again and a soothing streak of caprice. “Because the time of the traditional Egyptians and Romans, amethyst has been extremely prized and used for ornamental and soothing functions,” Griffiths notes. “It has lengthy been thought to appease irritability and cut back anxiousness.” Amethyst can also be intriguing, he continues, “As a result of like rock crystal, amethyst can convert mechanical vitality into electrical vitality. Amethyst crystals are utilized in televisions, microphones, mills, and nanotechnology merchandise.” Whereas Griffiths can’t promise that his cocktail ring will electrify the wearer, he says with a smile, “This ring is a jumbo jewel that delivers a jolt of wealthy purple colour.”

For many who choose smaller purple pleasures, Griffiths affords amethyst earrings set in Crownwork® that grasp from tapered ear wires. Every sizable stone is 12.5 carats, which means that these jewels embody 25 carats of amethyst. Sitting regally beneath every ear lobe like glowing purple beacons, it’s straightforward to grasp why the traditional Romans drank within the colour of amethysts and located them so intoxicating that they wore amethyst jewels, drank out of amethyst goblets and sewed amethysts into their clothes. Different elegant ear jewels from Griffiths embrace the burnt-orange coloured hessonite garnet earrings with frosted pure quartz. “Gems that glow in fiery colours like hessonite garnet are perfect for vacation put on,” Griffiths says. “As a result of these glowing garnets are mixed with frosted quartz pendants, these earrings emit numerous gentle and a dreamy frosted vibe that’s nice all year-round, however particularly in the course of the holidays.”

Transferring into the realm of bracelets, one other vacation providing being made by Griffiths is his ethereal 18-karat gold Crownwork® bracelet, which options interlocking Crownwork® oval hyperlinks and icy 2.7 mm diamonds twinkling on both finish of the toggle. “This clasp is a fastidiously engineered aspect,” Griffiths says. “It simply matches in order that it by no means, ever slips out. I take nice care to make it unattainable for that toggle to disengage.” (Whereas the bracelet is available in a typical eight inch-circumference match, it can be ordered in smaller wrist sizes.)

As for the 4 leaf clover Crownwork® necklace by Griffiths, this Renaissance-inspired design lays completely across the neck. “Traditionally, 4 leaf clovers are related to good luck, religion, hope and love, particularly in Eire,” Griffiths notes. “I like Renaissance jewels with the 4 leaf clover motif that function in lots of Renaissance portrait work.” Whereas this golden design seems nice by itself, one of many many coloured sapphire, diamond, tourmaline, enamel or pearl and Crownwork® enhancers that Griffiths affords can add an ideal embellishment, as these beauties are designed to clip on and off with nice ease. “Enhancers are sometimes under-represented in jewellery collections, but they’re able to making nice impression by altering up a wide range of seems with nice colours, textures and flashes of brilliance,” Griffiths observes.

On the reverse finish of the necklace spectrum, a hand-crafted, 34-inch oxidized sterling silver necklace that gleams with a mountainous, 3.5-inch clear rock crystal orb set in 18-karat gold Crownwork®. Embodying the last word in pure magnificence, this gender-neutral jewel will be shared amongst {couples}. “Individuals love this necklace as a result of it makes them really feel clear and light-weight,” Griffith explains. “I put on one usually, and I wish to take it off and wrap the chain round my hand and relax whereas holding the rock crystal between my fingers. As I discussed, crystal can conduct electrical energy, and there’s something so calming about holding on to easy quartz. It makes you’re feeling purified.” Whereas he has clients who give his rock crystal orb necklaces to aged dad and mom for the sake of their serenity, Griffiths says that there are many women and men who put on these to essential conferences and household reunions for talismanic safety. As Griffiths says, “There’s a powerful case to be made that that is the best vacation reward for jewellery lovers of all genders.” In addition to making you look imperial, “this pendant on its 34-inch chain can be used as martial arts jewellery,” he says with amusing. 

To glow whereas going with the vacation circulate, Tahitian pearl necklaces subtly punctuated with 18-karat gold Crownwork® beads go well with all genders, ensembles and conditions. “Pearls go well with each event,” Griffiths explains, “and there’s something so timeless about them that makes them good for items and for vacation put on. Having worn pearls and promoted pearls for menswear ever since he began his fantastic jewellery collections, Griffiths loves the truth that pearls are actually on the worldwide type radar. “Everyone from pop stars like Harry Types and professional baseball gamers equivalent to Joc Pederson of the Atlanta Braves are popping up carrying pearls on the pink carpet and on the baseball subject. Pearls work for all ages, genders and life phases!” Made by a residing creature, (an irritated oyster), the heavier the pearl, the longer it has been contained in the oyster. “As pearls take up physique oil from being worn, they begin to grow to be extra moisturized, and that is how pearls purchase their sheen. By no means put on cologne or fragrance on pores and skin that comes into contact together with your pearls,” he counsels, “because the chemical compounds inside the formulae can harm the pearl’s nacre, its outer coating and sheen. You need your pearls to look lovely and final a lifetime or extra.”

Griffiths has managed to maintain up a secure and busy trunk present schedule across the nation regardless of Covid-19 restrictions. He might be presenting trunk exhibits and making private appearances in November 2021 at such fantastic boutiques as: Brent Miller in Lancaster, PA.,  The Fine Jewelry Bar in Palm Desert, CA., Angela Boutique and at Danielle in San Francisco. In the course of the month of December, Griffiths might be showing at Frederic’s Fine Jewelers in Higher Montclair, New Jersey, in addition to Trove, in Weston, MA. and Vincents Fine Jewelry in Pelham, New York.

Jewellery lovers within the New York metropolitan space may also organize to satisfy with Griffiths in his atelier by appointment just for personal consultations and customized design work. Referred to as a jewellery whisperer for this masterful restoration and re-fashioning of classic items, Griffiths says modestly, “I’ve been lucky to have had the chance to create and restore magnificent jewels from many essential eras in jewellery historical past. There’s no time like the current, although, and I really like the best way fantastic jewellery is assuming extra significance in folks’s on a regular basis lives. I believe that Covid-induced ZOOM and FaceTime work and leisure tradition has made folks admire the facility of knickknack to elevate moods and appears in a means they by no means did earlier than.”