Made from non-precious materials and with no reference to the past, these 5 avant-garde jewels are a space where designers express the delicacy, dexterity and almost obsessive attention to detail of 18th-century craftsmen.

By Sandrine Merle.

Fumiki Taguchi’s brooch
Associate professor at Kobe Design University, Fumiki Taguchi is one of the best-known representatives of the Japanese avant-garde jewelry scene. This brooch, reminiscent of a European family coat-of-arms, is composed of thin sheets of silver that overlap like souvenirs… The most astonishing feature is the meticulous chasing that creates micro-holes in the metal. Once rhodium-plated (covered with a very shiny, very white metal), the metal reflects the light marvelously. It then appears paved with sparkling diamonds.

Shinji Nakaba’s sculpted pearl ring
This Japanese designer, whom I was lucky enough to meet in his workshop, transforms small, pear-shaped pearls with protrusions into incredibly expressive faces, perfectly round, white and slightly pink. With a few black strokes, he creates a trumpet-shaped nose, a curl of hair, an almond-shaped eye. The poetry lies in all these micro-details, like the gold thread of the frame, which seems to be knotted by hand. Just let yourself be carried away by the emotion…

Mariko Kusumoto’s fabric necklace
Mariko Kusumoto combines traditional Japanese folding processes with the hot-molding of synthetic fabrics.
The result is translucent shapes in pastel hues evoking marvellous underwater flora and fauna. Anemones, sea urchins and coral literally appear to float… Her technically complex creations fascinate with their finesse and lightness.

Kazumi Nagano’s brooch
Before exploring the world of jewelry in the mid-90s, Kazumi Nagano was a painter. She creates magnificent brooches that are hand-woven and then folded (using the origami technique) until the perfect balance is achieved. She uses materials of varying suppleness, such as bamboo ribbon, platinum or gold thread, silk or nylon. As tactile as she is visual, her work is represented in the collections of the Victoria & Albert Museum and Alice and Louis Koch in Switzerland.

The Manami Aoki brooch
The concept behind these brooches and hair ornaments is kushi-ireru-ki, meaning “combable wood” or “wooden hair”. Manami Aoki spends hours and hours hammering cedar into fibers that resemble human hair, as if untidy after sleep. Then she styles them…

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