The Influence of Colour in High Jewellery Through the Decades

Original article found here in the Jewellery Editor

Coloured gemstones are the artist’s palette for the jeweller with exciting discoveries heralding new designs and new trends.

Rainbows, hand-painted by children and posted on the front windows of homes across the land, became one of the enduring images of the coronavirus pandemic. They symbolised hope and solidarity, their cheerful colours a morale-booster for all. Nature’s meteorological spectrum of vibrant hues also served as a different form of inspiration, enthusing jewellery designers to look at mother earth’s broad palette of gemstones and piling them all together into rainbow-coloured jewels.

Jewellery is currently going through a joyful period of fancy-coloured sapphires, tourmalines, and beryl of almost every hue as well of course as the spectacular-coloured diamonds with yellows and browns emerging as new favourites. However, colour does slip in and out of fashion. We might be whipped up about bright colours today, but in the Roaring Twenties the Art Deco aesthetic was very monochromatic with diamonds, pearls and onyx punctuated by a beautiful emerald or ruby.