The Garden of Kalahari ring

   With the leadership and foresight of Caroline Scheufele’s creative and visionary soul, these five stones were built through a daring network of poetic and metaphorical symbols. The radiant 50-carat brilliant cut becomes a sunflower, the 26-carat heart shape a delicate pansy, and the 25-carat pear shape a majestic banana blossom. As for the perfect 20-carat cushion cut, it indulges in a gentle tête-à-tête with the flaming poppy, while the 21-carat emerald cut floats idly alongside a water lily. All these come together in an enchanting scene of shapes, echoes, reflections, and colors, an extraordinary garden where poetry, light, and radiance are the only rules. These five diamonds are the masterworks among the 23 diamonds composing The Garden of Kalahari — the set of diamonds cut from The Queen of Kalahari. It is around these stones that an extraordinary collection of six exceptional pieces of jewelry has been dreamed up, emerging from the High Jewellery workshops of the Maison, testifying to Chopard’s renowned artistic virtuosity and to their creative expertise. The collection alone took almost a full year’s work: thousands of hours of dedication from Chopard’s jewelry artisans and gemsetters.

   Wearing the necklace is an art in itself, as the jewels are designed to be interpreted in four variations. The first is a gorgeous, modern choker to be worn alone. For a more sophisticated version, an invisible mechanism allows the wearer to detach the center and adorn it with an exquisite flower. For festive evenings, the flower itself serves to attach three majestic pendants, adorned with the three biggest diamonds in The Garden of Kalahari: the 50-carat brilliant-cut, 26-carat heart-shaped, and 25-carat pear-shaped gems. Each of these precious ‘attachments’ can be worn alone or together, culminating in the perfect necklace with all three at once.

   Upon seeing it for the first time, Caroline Scheufele enthuses that it was love at first sight. “The energy and emotional charge emanating from this gem are truly incomparable.” Since then, she has personally supervised each stage of development in the interpretations of the most prestigious jewelry ever to emerge from the Chopard workshops. She further explains, “This is a truly exceptional stone, but we did not wish to treat it as a mere trophy, but instead to prepare it for a destiny worthy of its stature.” Combined with the peerless expertise of the Chopard ateliers, this 342-carat diamond has found its most eloquent expression — in an extraordinary ensemble of 23 diamonds: The Garden of Kalahari. Among these 23 diamonds, five weigh more than 20 carats and each of the main stone cuts — cushion, brilliant, heart, emerald and pear — is represented. From the rough stone to the completed jewelry model, this transfiguration is made possible by virtuoso technical skills, artistic vocation, and the savoir-faire of the Maison Chopard.

   In the Chopard workshops, everything begins with a story of hands: those inventive artisans who successively applied their skills to these exceptional creations, by uniting more than 30 crafts under the same roof. Chopard creations and artistic crafts are an integral part of the proud High Jewellery tradition and are exercised at the very highest level there: lost-wax carvers and casters, jewelers, lapidaries, gemsetters and polishers…they perpetually push the boundaries of feasibility and, by pooling their talents, give vibrant life to the most prestigious jewelry. The Garden of Kalahari testifies to the genius that was essential to its development under the visionary eye of Caroline Scheufele. Guided by her creative direction, High Jewellery has enjoyed spectacular development in recent years and currently occupies a major place on the contemporary High Jewellery scene. These creations are the source of constantly renewed and dazzled wonderment.