New Bracelets

Jewelry designer Johanna T?rnqvist makes bracelets out of cast-off packaging materials, while Elvire Blanc Briand finds inspiration in pastry-making techniques. The results can be seen in the book "New Bracelets" (Promopress), edited by Colombia-born jewelry designer Nicol?s Estrada, which features more than 400 pieces from 200 artists. Writing about her work, N?ra Tengely asks: What if we picked jewelry "not in accordance with sight, but with other senses"? Her bracelets are named after sensations that they mimic, like a "caress" bracelet made of brass and feathery polyester and a "tickle" bracelet that consists of five balloons tied to a brass circle. Steven Parker's "Egyptian Bracelet"--made of vermeil, lapis lazuli, enamel, brass, steel and quartz--contains stylized hooded cobras and hieroglyphics that contain a riddle. Gigi Mariani also looks back millennia with "Stonehenge," a ring of six prehistoric-looking blocks whose dark surface hides silver and yellow gold. Other artists bring a sharp sense of humor. In "Body Museum" by Wei Si of China, a thin traditional bracelet comes inside its own boxy glass display case, which is also part of the jewelry.

By Peter Saeger (Wall Stret Journal, 03/06/2021)