Some examples of Shibumi Planet Jewelry

Rachel Christ has been making Jewelry from beads for the last eight years. She works for her own company, Shibumi Planet. “Shibumi is a Japanese word. It means the essence of how you feel when you’re happy in many aspects with your life; when everything is simple and elegant,” Ms Christ explained.

“That is the feeling I get when I am arranging the pieces. It is also the feeling I hope you would get when you are wearing them.” Ms Christ began making Jewelry by arranging beads to form braclets and necklaces. The beads are made from many different kinds of stones and taken from many different countries.

“I use Chinese or Tibetan Turquoise, Lapis, or antique Roman glass from Afghanistan, that I bought in a market in Bangkok. I also buy beads from Laos, Luang Prabang and also Vientiane which is the capital, or I look through the market places of Yunnan in Southern China,” she said. Two years ago, Ms Christ began learning the craft of silversmithing, at a school, in Chaingmai, Thailand.

Under the watchful eye of Master Silversmith, Nugoon, she was taught how to make all the components of her jewelry from first principles; a fact that adds to the unique, hand-made feeling of all that she makes. Each piece of Jewelry Ms Christ makes is simple and elegant.

As she selects stones of a bracelet or necklace that will go together, the forms and colours of each are all a matter of balance and harmony, and are brought together by her natural sense of aesthetic intuition. The pieces also show an elegant balance of styles, influences and techniques: traditional and modern, natural-looking and crafted, Asian and European.

“I like to use the natural stones, not the faceted stones such as cut diamonds. The natural veins are left through the turquoise,” she said. Handling an elegant piece she explained its composition: “This piece has Tibetan turquoise, Roman glass from Afghanistan and freshwater pearls; it comes from different places, but this whole piece is in harmony,” she said.

“I make things that please me, rather than thinking what the consumer wants.” Explaining how it is that each piece of her jewelry is unique, Ms Christ explained that she begins by making the bezel, that is, the silver cup that holds the stone. It is a process that involves many different stages, and much time. “Because my stones are more natural stones, the bezel has to be handmade in order for it to fit around the stone.

Because you are constantly heating the metal, it is always changing colour until it becomes black, deep purple, or burnt orange, so that it doesn’t even come close to what its going to look like. Then you put it in the pickling solution, which eats off the fire-scale, leaving the surface a muted, clean silver colour. After that is done, you can set the stone.

“When you tap it in the bezel, you can see all the little hammer marks and places where the silver has gathered, but when you file and sand it, you remove all that roughness. “The very last thing to do is polish it, which turns it into the brilliantly shiny silver that you finally see,” she explained.

christopher@caymannetnews.com