Feature W
hen it comes to jewellery there are not many women who could contain their excitement on receiving
a traditional beautiful diamond ring, an exquisite necklace or fabulous earrings. However French jewellery designer Ornella Iannuzzi seeks to change traditional views of jewellery and get us thinking about the natural beauty of the world in which we live. With her own gift for capturing detail Ornella Iannuzzi has astounded many with the beauty of her designs. From making objects in her father’s workshop to taking on a course in Applied Art, Ornella has nurtured her desire to create from a young age. With a background in studying various aspects of Art, it was Ornella’s report on Art Nouveau which inspired her to pursue jewellery design as she says, “T is is when I discovered the work of Rene Lalique and I fell in love with jewellery instantly! T e following year we had an internship to do within a company and I decided to go with a jeweller. I made my fi rst ring during my two weeks there and haven’t stopped thinking about jewellery designs since then.” Amongst Ornella’s inspirational fi gures are the French pioneer of modern jewellery Jean Vendome and Italian born Andrew Grima who created various pieces for the British Royal family over the years, notably Queen Elizabeth II’s ruby broach. Continuing to progress on her jewellery
career, Ornella took up a position briefl y working for jewellery giants Van Cleef & Arpels before going on to study a Masters in Jewellery at the prestigious Royal College of Art in London where she developed her own unusual style of jewellery design. Ornella says:
“I really enjoyed doing my own thing and breaking the mould of traditional ‘haute- joaillerie’ which I had been taught in France.” She laughs adding: “Where in France you are very much told how to do things, in the UK you are left to your own devices to explore which was a new experience for me.” From this Ornella became so dedicated to her own unique style that she decided to open her own business continuing to challenge what she calls “the boundaries of traditions and preciousness.” From her beginnings Ornella has gone from strength to strength with her company which began with her launching the Nature’s Treasure collection in 2008. Her ring “On the Rock” caught a lot of attention from critics and jewellery designers alike including
“Nature is the biggest treasure we have on earth”
praise from our recently featured jewellery extraordinaire Stephen Webster. Since then Ornella has been inundated with several awards for her work such as the Gold Award in Fine Jewellery, GIA Award by the Goldsmith’s Hall in London and the Laureate of the Adler Design Award in Geneva. Ornella went on to win another Gold Award in 2010 for Jewellery Crafts and Design and was a fi nalist at both the UK and Italian Jewellery Awards in 2008, 2009 and 2010. Her latest achievements are from the Goldsmith’s Craft and Design Council Awards and fi nalist to the UK Jewelley Awards in the Jewellery Designers of the Year category.
One vital contribution to Ornella’s success is her childhood memories of collecting
minerals and stones. It is this which inspired her creations, her fascination with geological formations heavily contributing to her work. She said: “I believe nature is the biggest treasure we have on earth, and therefore jewellery is the obvious means to express this preciousness. I have always been fascinated by details within nature and how plants or minerals are so perfectly made up to the tiniest part. As Leonardo da Vinci said: ‘Details make perfection, and perfection is not a detail!’ T at is my motto when making a piece.” Showcasing her very fi rst collection for a mass market, the Les Corallines range off ers ladies who love jewellery a chance to own not only a beautiful piece to wear but also to possess a stunning part of nature and wear it with pride. Having previously only made one of a kind individual pieces, Ornella expresses her wish with this project is to make her work more readily available to lovers of jewellery. She said: “I wanted to give the possibility to my clients to wear the jewellery on a day to day basis and off er the brand to another form of clientele such as ladies who would like to have something very unique and diff erent to stand out from the rest of the jewellery in the high street.” She adds: “I would be happy if I could spread my message about preciousness to a wider audience! I read once that De Beers built the status of ‘the most precious stone’ with diamonds thanks to a very well done marketing campaign. I wish I could do this for all natural elements that deserve to be considered as precious. With this Ornella reminds those wanting to follow suit, “It is a long and rocky road, but with determination, perseverance, hard work and endurance, everything is possible.”
Ornella Iannuzzi’s ‘Les Corallines’ collection is currently available online at
www.ornella-iannuzzi.com Prices from £110 - £15,000
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