JEWELLERY SAVOIR-FAIRE
Cartier's savoir-faire is a dialogue between creativity and technique, a permanent to-and-fro between designers, watchmakers, jewellers, gem-setters, polishers and gem-cutters. For Cartier, the important part of savoir-faire is the hyphen.
BRINGING TOGETHER TECHNOLOGY AND LIFE
An incredibly supple, hypnotic snake whose beauty Cartier enhances, bringing out the reptile’s animal presence on the skin.
COMBINING DENSITY
AND LIGHTNESS
The Cartier craftsmen have taken three Australian opals and a multitude of stones and created an impression of weightlessness, the lightness of the ephemeral, like the wings of a butterfly.
SAVOIR-FAIRE CONVERSATIONS
Discover everything you ever wanted to know about High Jewellery at Cartier, as actress Golshifteh Farahani discusses the collection with Pierre Rainero, director of image, style and heritage at Cartier.
VOLUME AND FLEXIBILITY
Giving a complex creation an incredibly fluid nature on the skin, that is the challenge of the Synesthésie necklace, whose linked work to the back has been treated as entirely articulated lace.
THE ART OF THREADING
The challenge of this necklace from Sixième Sens par Cartier involves respecting the finesse of the design, while ensuring the necklace falls naturally. It’s also about creating a perfect balance between the different emeralds. The art of threading is a delicate skill, which requires doing, undoing and redoing. Tying the threads several times and meticulously threading small stones.
THE TUTTI FRUTTI STYLE
The composition of this necklace lies in the harmony of its colours. The workshops aim to restore the naturalness of the branches and buds through an explosion of flower, fruit or palmette motifs, as well as smooth and fluted beads, rubies, sapphires and emeralds. The challenge is to combine different engraved stones with floral engravings, using a technique developed by the Mughals in the 17th century. This piece is part of the great tradition of transformable jewellery which can be adapted at will into pendants, brooches or necklaces without leaving anything visible.
CUTTING THE CORAL
Cutting the coral, a highly delicate material, is a feat in itself. The material could break at any time. The challenge of the Panthère Tropicale bracelet is further compounded by the choice of a radiating groove motif, made on tiny plaques of coral.
THE ART OF TRANSPARENCY
In the Tillandsia necklace, transparency becomes art: two exceptional beryls appear to float on a diamond lattice. The designer and jeweller join forces to create effects of depth, which continue into the crystal of the rutilated quartz.
HARMONISING VOLUME
Harmonising volume, shape and material: that’s the challenge of the Hemis necklace, which dedicates the art of the gem-cutter to baroque-shaped opals and a large kunzite.
PAIRING EXCEPTIONAL DIAMONDS
2 diamonds totalling more than 26 carats are circled by 107 diamonds which shine with the same intensity and sparkle. A feat achieved by stone cutters, jewellers and gemstone experts, who are instrumental in the creation of dazzling pieces, true jewellery perfection.
COLOURFUL PRECIOUS STONES
Cartier’s experts have tried to identify the most beautiful gemstones from the Earth’s core which will make up the subtle harmonies of a living necklace, changing reflections from the depths of magma.
BRINGING OUT THE LIGHT
At Cartier the stone guides creation, and even more so when it comes to diamond-set rings. The stone determines the choice of setting - and not the other way around. The metal, designed to disappear, allows the radiance of the stones to shine through. Absolute perfection, Cartier’s signature.
DESIGN IN MOTION
Achieving the balance between volume and lightness, suppleness and style. Guided by the gemstones, jewellers, gem-setters and stone cutters have created a fluid and living material on the skin, a breathtakingly complex design in motion.
THE PANTHER IN MOTION
Since 1914 with the panther’s first appearance, the Maison’s artisan jewellers have explored the art of bringing the panther to life. Muscles, heads and paws: the detail unfolds through the sculpture, as its power is liberated. They witness the living movement and together translate it into three dimensions.
FUR SETTING
For the panther, Cartier’s artisans use the technique of “fur” setting, a unique Cartier savoir-faire. One by one, the animal spots, in sapphire or onyx, are uniquely hand-carved. The jeweller surrounds them with grains of metal which he folds into tiny threads on the stone. The fur is amazingly lifelike, the material awakens and provokes emotion.
SELECTING THE DIAMONDS
A Cartier diamond meets the most demanding selection criteria and is examined by Cartier’s expert “eye”. Unique talent and expertise that help identify that little something extra from the most exceptional of gemstones. The Cartier difference.