Every so often a jewelry designer comes along who perfectly captures the zeitgeist of our times and whose jewelry is destined to become a future collectible. That’s the case for London-based jeweler Solange Azagury-Partridge. Her first book, “Solange: Jewelry for Chromantics”, chronicles her creative process and her innovative, avant-garde designs. The 272-page coffee-table tome, published by Rizzoli, is packed with images of Solange’s jewelry, her studio, her home and even some images from the most personal moments of her life.
The book starts out with a foreword by Clare Phillips, curator in the Department of Decorative Art and Sculpture at the Victoria and Albert Museum. In the foreword, Phillips notes that Solange designed for Boucheron, from 2001 to 2004 and later created a collection for H&M, explaining that for Solange craftsmanship, not materials, is the most important aspect of creating a piece of jewelry and joy is a guiding principle of her work. The Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Musee des Arts Decoratifs in Paris both have pieces of jewelry from Solange in their collections.
Jewelry historian, author and editor, Ruth Peltason, wrote an essay for the book entitled “Visual Chaos”. The essay is an overview of Solange’s career and accomplishments including how she started designing jewelry when she created her own engagement ring that was quickly coveted by friends and family. The section also discusses the inspirations behind Solange’s creativity, who is a trained linguist speaking multiple languages. The essay goes on to describe Solange and her work through various words and how her designs are influenced by certain words such as elemental, viridian and kinetic, which are also headings for chapters in the book.
For the Love of Color
Each of the chapters of the book is comprised of a few introductory paragraphs, written by Solange, as well as images of jewelry and other works that have impacted her designs. The first chapter Viridian, talks about her love of green and showcases jewelry made with green gems or enamel. Solange also discusses how red was at one time her favorite color and how she now considers red and green her favorite color combination.
She follows up the first chapter with Chromantic. Solange describes chromance as her love affair with color and the use of color as a personal means of expression. “Colour speaks of confidence and joy and is a celebration of life in all of its facets,” she writes.
Diamonds in the Sky
Chapter three, Celestial, focuses on Solange’s love of stargazing, who says it is one of her favorite past times, reporting that the moon and stars give feelings of hope and a sense of the possible. The pieces in this section are more diamond intensive pairing rose cuts, modern brilliants, or both, with her unique settings.
In the Elemental section, Solange talks about gaining inspiration for her designs from the elements of nature: Earth, fire, water, air and ether. She uses gems and precious metals to recreate ephemeral phenomena. With her sense of fun firmly in place, in this chapter, Solange shows amusing rings that highlight enamel carrots, or clouds, decorating the piece instead of a gemstone. The influence of the natural world on the use of texture is examined in this chapter.
Spirituality, Movement and Emotion
In the chapter titled “Devotional”, Solange remarks that religion and spirituality have important symbolism and stories that shape the world we live in. She goes on to say that scientific, religious and spiritual texts sometimes spark inspiration for her, leading her to create jewels that are amulets.
The next section, “Kinectic”, talks about how pieces that spin, shake or twist, adds another dimension of life and character to a jewel. Movement is what brings the fun to a piece of jewelry, according to Solange.
Solange is always motivated to create jewelry that stirs emotion, she says in the chapter entitled “Emotional”. She states that wearing jewelry that has a connection to friends or family is like wearing a private part of your soul. This part of the book is filled with heart jewelry, but not the typical heart. Solange has a heart pendant that replicates a human heart, she also created a heart ring that is in two pieces, worn together they form a heart. But one section may be worn on its own to indicate a broken heart, or it can be gifted to one you love so that when the two of you are together the heart is complete. It also features here infamous enameled HotLips rings in a variety of colors.
The book closes with a chronology of career highlights through the years, which is followed by quotes from celebrities who wear Solange’s jewelry including Julianne Moore, Liberty Ross, Sam Taylor-Johnson and Claudia Schiffer. Solange: Jewelry for Chromantics is a deeply personal account of how she creates, what inspires her and also shows us how she brings her philosophy of joy as a guiding principle of her work to life.
Top of page: Cover of ©Solange: Jewelry for Chromantics, published by Rizzoli, 2024.
Authored by Amber Michelle