Cabinet of Curiosities – Jewelry Collection: L’Officina del Sole and Bianca Beltramello present their new collection, result of a collaboration between craftsmanship and design.
Cabinet Of Curiosities is the result of a collaboration between fashion designer Bianca Beltramello and Lorenzo Para, skilful artisan of concept store L’Officina del Sole.
Starting from the common interest for everything antique, unusual, with a fascinating story waiting to be told, the collection is based on baroque and historical aesthetics. The starting inspirations for this mood are wunderkammers, rooms in which collectors preserve their personal selection of rarities and curiosities. These peculiar objects inspire the design of every jewel.
Lover’s Eyes, Georgian love tokens, are recalled in miniature frames, containing a small eye portrait. Antique sacred art objects, originally recovered from deconsecrated churches, appear in gold halos. The concept of specimen and fossils, preserved under glass bells, are depicted with nautiluses, seahorses and turritellas. Each of them is a special object, with its own story, worthy of being displayed in a wunderkammer.
Another factor that contributes at making the jewels unique is the realization process. Artisan Lorenzo Para handcrafted every single piece by using the ancient papier-mâché technique. High quality paper is preventively crushed, macerated and then kneaded with natural glues, creating an incoherent conglomerate. This mixture finds its coherence by being manipulated and compressed by the artisan’s fingers, who presses it against a negative mould. The compound is left to dry in a special ventilated oven, while the artisan is continuously intervening in order to avoid shape loss. The raw artifact, extremely lightweight, is then laminated with a galvanic method in 24k gold or palladium.
Each jewel is unique and special because of its artisanal nature. The same passion for uniqueness associates Bianca and Lorenzo in this collection, in which nothing is ordinary or impersonal, but rather expressive of a strong identity.
