‘The choice of materials is a fundamental part of the story of a collection and has the ability to bring something personal to each piece,’ says jewellery designer Fernando Jorge, who has worked with Brazilian Red Louro wood and brown diamonds for his new jewellery collection, Deep Stream. ‘I have always been drawn to natural materials and have been looking for the right opportunity to introduce wood. Red Louro wood specifically is not only aesthetically compelling but also meaningful as it is native from the Amazon and sourced by local communities. We have worked in collaboration with Idesam, an NGO since 2020 and continue to support it. This full circle story helps me to connect to my Brazilian heritage.’
Jorge unites this heritage with his distinctive sculptural silhouettes in the pieces which encompass rings, earrings and bracelets. Snaking around the body, their curved forms bring a fluid flexibility to wood, expanding the ideas Jorge began to explore in the Stream collection a decade ago. ‘Back then, my first Stream pieces were showcased by a jewellery gallery at PAD London,’ Jorge adds. ‘Deep Stream was created with PAD in mind, as a way to interpret my aesthetic within a collectible design setting. I chose to work with a native wood from the Brazil’s Amazon forest and drew inspiration from the exuberance of the region. The flowing movement of water was the original inspiration for the Stream collection. For this special Series, I used more volume and scale to channel the power of the Amazon River. The wood in combination with brown diamonds perfectly represents its deep rich colour.’
Working with wood was not without its challenges for Jorge, who found ways to accommodate its natural properties. ‘It is more porous and fibrous and therefore more affected by its environment. We had to understand these complexities and protect the wood on the finished pieces. The unusually dry weather in the Amazon region also made it quite challenging to find materials that were not overly dehydrated, an interesting reminder of how everything is interconnected.’
