The Jewellery Designer Kia Schwaninger Steps Out With Her Personal Assortment

When she was 5 years outdated Kia Schwaninger designed her first piece of knickknack, a refined necklace of royal-blue polymer clay beads that was for her mom.

“I assume that was my first fee,” the Swiss-born designer who now lives and works in Brooklyn mentioned as a joke. Her mom nonetheless has the necklace.

Ms. Schwaninger, 42, has been severe about jewellery design ever since. After coaching in metalsmithing throughout her teen years, she earned a Bachelor of Effective Arts in jewellery and metalsmithing from the Rhode Island Faculty of Design, accomplished a design internship at Tiffany & Firm and acquired a Grasp of Arts in Design and Utilized Arts on the Inventive Academy, a program in Milan based by Richemont, the Swiss luxurious group whose jewellery homes embrace Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels.

It was Van Cleef’s president and chief government, Nicolas Bos, who noticed her expertise on the academy and later employed her as a junior designer. “She has an engineer’s mind-set and may be very exact, but additionally has actual creativity and a contact of whimsicality,” Mr. Bos mentioned.

She spent 10 years working for the French jeweler in Paris after which New York, the place she rose to a senior designer publish. “She created a legacy of her work within the Van Cleef assortment,” he mentioned, “a few of which nonetheless stays at present.”

Ms. Schwaninger mentioned Van Cleef’s heritage and craftsmanship formed her aesthetic. “I fell in love with the Van Cleef artistry and universe, the place every little thing from each angle is harmonious,” she mentioned.

She later spent 4 years as Harry Winston’s director of design after which, in 2020, established her personal enterprise, Jewels by Kia Schwan, to make commissioned items. This month, she launched a signature sequence accessible by order by means of her web site or Instagram.

The sequence illustrates her affinity for precision and order together with a way of spirit. Items are to be accessible with as many as 20 totally different coloured stones, reminiscent of coral, turquoise, malachite and tiger’s-eye. They’re being carved by German artisans in Idar-Oberstein, a widely known gemstone middle, after which layered in designs that echo the geometric, minimalist strains of the Artwork Deco period.

“I just like the play of matte and translucent stones that comes with onerous stones, and the combination of textures and colours,” Ms. Schwaninger mentioned. “I’m in love with the blue and inexperienced shade mixtures as a result of it’s actually alive and vibrant.” She was referring to a barrel-shape ring with a aspect view impressed by the curves on the prime of the Chrysler Constructing in New York Metropolis. One other ring with stripes of tiger’s-eye and purple carnelian reminded her of an vehicle’s racing purple stripes, she mentioned. The items vary from $5,000 to $20,000.

Customized commissions might be troublesome, however Mr. Bos mentioned that Ms. Schwaninger is nicely fitted to the problem. “She has the power to pay attention and perceive a consumer,” he mentioned. “Even when an concept is troublesome to place into phrases, Kia will one way or the other give you the design the consumer anticipated, which is the expertise of a terrific designer.”

That was the case final yr when Gail Metcalf arrived with a jade bangle that had been minimize in half to take away it from her mom’s wrist earlier than she died. “She at all times wore the bangle,” Ms. Metcalf mentioned, “and I promised her we’d make it into two items of knickknack for me and my sister.”

Ms. Metcalf, who has been Van Cleef’s senior archives supervisor in New York for greater than a decade, wasn’t certain what to do with two halves, however she did know who to name as she had beforehand commissioned items from Ms. Schwaninger. “Kia is extremely delicate, and he or she has the power to learn what folks actually need,” she mentioned.

Ms. Schwaninger sketched a number of design iterations, all of which concerned combining a half of the bangle with a gold bracelet engraved with peonies, which was the mom’s favourite flower. One of many sisters selected a 2.8-carat darkish inexperienced garnet as her bracelet’s middle stone whereas the opposite had a 2.6-carat shiny inexperienced one.

On the within of the bangles, she repeated the peony motif, however with six butterflies, every set with relations’ birthstones.

“I actually love the conversations that I’ve with my shoppers,” Ms. Schwaninger mentioned, “and I like the thought of making a one-of-a-kind piece that matches them.”

Her regular course of begins with detailed conversations, after which she submits sketches to the consumer. As soon as the design is agreed upon, she paints a finely detailed gouache portray of the design. Utilizing her community of craftspeople, she selects the proper artisans for the job after which collaborates intently with them on every little thing from the custom-cut stones to extremely technical settings. It will probably take months for items to be accomplished; costs for {custom} work begin at $5,000.

“Purchasers come to Kia as a result of they really feel she will be able to translate their very own emotion right into a jewel,” mentioned Anne Eva Geffroy, the design director at Graff Diamonds in London, who labored with Ms. Schwaninger at Van Cleef. “She’s actually observant,” she mentioned, “she does a variety of analysis, thinks of the spirit of the request and can give delivery to an concept.” All these are abilities, she mentioned, which bodes nicely for somebody nurturing a enterprise.

Nonetheless, a jewellery enterprise requires vital funding, so Ms. Schwaninger has continued to do freelance design for some European jewellery homes.

Ms. Schwaninger’s collaborative method to her work is maybe greatest expressed within the image of a bee, which is embossed on her jewellery bins and utilized in her brand.

“The bee creates a treasured substance by means of the collaboration of an entire hive,” she mentioned. “I like to consider my jewellery in the identical means; it’s created by many artisans, who’ve honed their crafts by means of years and years of expertise, plus the consumer coming in with their needs and their desires, and we come collectively to make a treasured piece of knickknack.”