There was so much jewellery worth covering at New York City Jewelry Week 2023, it’s hard to know where to start.
But one of the pieces from the Strong & Precious Art Foundation seems like a good place to start.
Founded in April 2022, just months after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Strong & Precious is the brainchild of Ukrainian-born Olga Oleksenko.
Oleksenko is a jewelry connoisseur who was the director of the Van Cleef & Arpels boutique in Kyiv for a decade, and later became the brand’s ambassador in Ukraine.
Strong & Precious is Oleksenko’s way of bringing Ukrainian jewellery designers and their talents to the fore at a time of conflict and difficulty for the country.
During Jewelry Week, Strong & Precious showcased pieces from five designers at Mriya, a Ukrainian art gallery in New York’s TriBeCa neighbourhood.
The one-of-a-kind creations tell stories of blackouts, freedom, hope, the country’s heritage and its natural resources.
Among the pieces was designer Inesa Kovalova’s incredible ‘Links’ brooch.
Crafted from titanium and 18-carat gold, the centrepiece of the brooch is a striking 38.53-carat heliodor from the Volodarsk-Volynskii mine in Ukraine, which is known for producing top-quality heliodor as well as fine specimens of another beryl, aquamarine.
Resembling a deconstructed paper clip, Kovalova found inspiration for the piece in the industrial landscapes of the Donbass region, a war-torn area of eastern Ukraine.
It symbolises the unbreakable bond between eastern and western Ukraine, and between the country’s cities – expressed through the smooth, grey titanium – and its natural beauty, brought to life by this sunny Heliodor.
