Black, White and Brilliant – A Preview of Hemmerle’s New York Spring Viewing

For its New York Spring Viewing this year, Hemmerle pays homage to the piece that revolutionized the Munich-based jewelers’ contemporary aesthetic we know today. In 1995, a special commission for a ring by a family friend, who preferred Berlin iron to precious jewels, inspired Stefan Hemmerle to set a diamond not in gold or platinum but in his friend’s beloved iron. The striking result of a brilliant white diamond starkly set within a black iron mounting would become the springboard for future Hemmerle jewels. More than twenty years later, Hemmerle continues its brazen trailblazing in the world of contemporary jewelry design.

This spring, the combination of black iron and white diamonds bursts back to the present in several pieces of Hemmerle’s newest pieces, including a pair of dynamite earrings, in which a pair of old European cut diamonds scintillates within a halo of sea urchin spines of iron. There is also a wide iron and diamond band ring, the dark matte surface juxtaposed by minuscule windows set with cushion-cut diamonds that appear to float within their frames. This study of contrast, of light and dark, sheen and shade, texture and flatness, is further explored in a bangle bracelet composed of bands of iron alternating with sections of reverse-set diamonds.

Though celebrated for its vibrantly colored gemstone pieces, Hemmerle equally excels in jewelry of a more austere palate. Black, white and earthen hues exude the same brilliance as Hemmerle’s more chromatic creations, largely owing to the exquisite harmony in pairing precious gems within a complimentary colored metal setting. Such subtly balanced accord is accomplished by a pair of melo pearl earrings, the rare gem’s vacillating shades of orange and peach paired perfectly with their copper frames and tops. Just as rustic in tone is a pair of diamond earrings, the largeness of the stones deftly masked by their eye-catching spiky settings.