Perusing the cases and displays at jewelry stores, customers generally expect to see staple metals: 18-karat gold, silver, platinum, perhaps titanium or palladium. There’s one material, however, that consumers may have to seek out: ceramic, used by designer Etienne Perret.
“Ceramique is my gem ceramic jewelry collection made from zirconia ceramic, an extremely hard high-tech material that is ideally suited for many industrial, medical and jewelry purposes,” Perret says. He first saw the material about 25 years ago when visiting Baselworld, at the booth of Swiss watch company Rado.
“It immediately struck me that if one could make watches from this material, one could make jewelry,” he says.
Perret said there is a large learning curve when working with zirconia ceramics, as opposed to other materials commonly used to make jewelry. “Unfortunately it is a brand-new material that does not have 5,000 years of craft history. Much of the knowledge is in high-tech industrial manufacturing or in the dental industry. I try to find others that have the same passion for the material, and share what we know.”
Click through this gallery to see 10 pieces from Ceramique. All prices listed are retail.
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