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BIJOUTERIE: Jewelry that goes from Rags to Riches

You gotta love the French language. It can make the most ordinary object sound exclusive and expensive. When the fashion industry borrowed the word “bijouterie” (from bijoux, French for “jewels”), a whole category of jewelry was transformed from cheap trinkets into collectors’ treasures.

In a nutshell, “bijouterie” is the new name for what we used to call “costume jewelry”.

That’s right. The low-cost, glittery or glossy “wear for fun”

The Olive Branch Story

I met Ellen through the Internet. She contacted me to order a set of wedding rings.
Together we reviewed an entire album of wedding ring possibilities - no less than 500 designs. Personally, I liked many of them. For example, there was a very original design where one thick ring was split into two thinner rings cut apart in a wavering line, so that His and Hers fit together and completed each other.

The bride didn't like any of them. In the above design, she saw it as the line of a life that was severed, broken, gone wrong. He and She had separated. How could I argue with someone else's perception?
By the way, it's easy to invent when you don't feel limited by a trivial thing called practical use. In the album there was a finger supporting a wedding ring that was a miniature paper and silver house, complete with a door that opened and shut. Very impressive. It belonged in a museum.

 Ellen eventually expressed what she wanted for herself

in very specific terms. It needed to be a ringlet in a free-style design, delicate and no more than five millimeters wide. Made from pink gold, like her grandmother's ring. With white gold insets. And there should be some message in the design.
The easy way to incorporate a message is to literally spell it out, with letters engraved on the surface. But that's not very original. And in works of art, I always prefer a visual hint over a direct text.
But what could I fit on a band five millimeters wide!? What visual message would work there? I thought – a little branch, made as an incrustation, white gold on pink gold.
A branch. What kind of branch? Maybe an Oriental cherry? (Japanese Cherry, or Sacura.) But the Oriental cherry is not recognizable unless it's blossoming, and I couldn't develop such a detailed design on 5 mm. Besides, what message would a Japanese tree communicate to an Israeli bride?
Maybe some kind of Israeli tree? Inspiration! An Olive Branch, the universal symbol of peace! Peace is the perfect message for starting a new family. And who is better at keeping and restoring peace in the home than the wife and mother?
Within minutes, Ellen agreed. "It's perfect!"
The Olive Branch design ring had a promising future. After all, it made peace between us.



Wedding Rings from the Mediterranean Sea

For a long time I have wanted to create a collection of wedding rings. But it was so difficult to invent something new…. The market is over-saturated with wedding rings, and something like that is meaningful only if it's an original, unique design. 

On the one hand, in today's market we have the ability to design in 3D, which opens up huge possibilities! On the other hand, it also means that any design you want, you can probably copy it from the Internet. So, I thought, what handmade design could I create that's impossible to repeat? Nothing in particular occurred to me…. 

When an idea hatches in my head, it takes on a life of its own. Eventually it turns out that everywhere I look, this idea involuntarily hints at its possibilities and tries to materialize in front of me. Especially when