Boucheron’s New High Jewelry Calls Attention to Nature’s Impermanence

Paris—Boucheron has launched its latest high jewelry collection, “Impermanence.”

The new collection is a continuation of “Untamed Nature,” the high jewelry collection released in January that paid homage to Frédéric Boucheron’s vision of nature.

“Impermanence,” however, is intended to be a deeper contemplation of the natural world, so as to better protect it, Boucheron said.

Its 28 high jewelry pieces range in tone from lightest to darkest, an embodiment of how nature is gradually vanishing.

“In this new carte blanche collection, I’ve sought to capture the beauty of nature before it vanishes. These six compositions illustrate nature’s fleetingness, shifting from light to shadow to highlight how precious it is,” Boucheron Creative Director Claire Choisne said.

“The collection is an ode to that fragile instant that I wanted to crystallize for eternity.”

The brooches, necklaces, earrings, rings, hair pieces, and head jewels feature light as a common thread that fades by degrees into pitch blackness by using materials ranging from white gold and borosilicate glass to onyx and black lacquer.

Choisne also looked to the Japanese art of Ikebana and philosophy of wabi-sabi for inspiration.

Ikebana is the art of flower arranging, which translates to “giving life to flowers.” It welcomes imperfection and the passage of time rather than attempting to freeze flowers when they look perfect.

It is closely linked to the philosophy of wabi-sabi, which celebrates the beauty of impermanence, imperfection, and time taking its natural course. The philosophy encourages one to pay close attention to what is modest, weathered, or incomplete, to embrace both fragility and the perpetual flux of life.

The six compositional photographs taken for the collection unite the pieces in scenes featuring flowers, foliage, and insects.

The Impermanence collection begins with light in “Composition n°6.”

It features the motifs of a dainty tulip, eucalyptus branch, and resting dragonfly as if they are frozen in gossamer transparency, the jeweler said, through borosilicate and sapphire glass chosen to display their delicate beauty.

Together, the three pieces are styled with a vase made from borosilicate glass that has been sandblasted.

“Composition n°5” celebrates the wild beauty of thistles.

Styled in a vase made from a composite material, the “Thistle” brooch and ring convey the “power of this fierce flower,” said Boucheron.

The pieces were rendered in a plant-based resin using ultra-high-resolution 3D printing technology to realistically transform the spiky flower heads.

Since a metal structure was not used in these elements, the pavé diamonds were set with a new technique Boucheron calls its “Couture” setting.

First, the diamonds were bezel-set and then they were sewn into each of the thistles’ cell-like alveoli.

Sitting beside the vase of thistles is a “Rhinoceros Beetle” brooch emphasizing the lightness of this composition with pavé diamonds set in white gold with a white ceramic coating.

“Composition n°4” plays with both the contrast of light and texture as darkness gradually begins taking over the collection through the use of black spinel and black lacquer.

It features cyclamen flowers and an oat stalk, which appear to be floating in a gentle breeze, “suspended in that fleeting instant when nature comes alive,” Boucheron said.

The “Cyclamen” brooch, which can transform into a bracelet, shows light through rose-cut diamonds that give the petals a stained-glass window effect and darkness through outlines of glossy black lacquer.

The juxtaposition of bright diamonds and white ceramic alongside black DLC-coated titanium and black spinel is seen in “Composition n°3.”

Iris and wisteria flowers are styled in a titanium and aluminum vase that continues the theme of this composition—growing darkness—using pavé-set black spinels.

The “Stag Beetle” brooch seen at the bottom is sculpted in titanium with bands of diamonds in white gold.

Texture is used here, with a rough finish on the beetle’s black DLC covered titanium mandibles and matte legs while the body has a shiny finish.

“Composition n°2” showcases nature beginning to vanish with its “Magnolia” necklace.

The piece is not much more than a skeletal structure of the flower and its buds on a branch that was created by scanning a real magnolia.

The petals are outlined with black anodized aluminum and flush-set pavé diamonds, while the white gold flower buds use inverse-set diamonds.

“The branch appears suspended in a delicate horizontal balance, dotted with blooms whose lingering outlines are all that remains of their past beauty,” Boucheron said.

Light seems to disappear completely in “Composition n°1,” the darkest of the “Impermanence” collection and the final composition.

Here, a poppy flower blooms in darkness that “almost seems to coalesce into tangible form, as if black were becoming matter, curving along every contour and petal,” the brand said.

The “Poppy” headband, which also can be a brooch, features matte-black titanium petals with hand-etched veining that is coated with Vantablack, one of the darkest materials ever created as the paint color absorbs 99.965 percent of light.

Using this material produces a visual effect in which the poppy petals seem to dissolve into pure nothingness, Boucheron said.

Black spinels are showcased in the center of the flower, some reverse-set, and the thin gold pistils feature black spinels and bezel-set diamonds at the tips.

The “Butterfly” shoulder brooch is seen resting on the flowers using a system of magnetic fasteners. The insect has a matte-black titanium body set with black spinels and transparent black glass wings.

The “Impermanence” collection can be viewed in full on the Boucheron website.