Opening up to modernity and facing the more classical jewellery admirers, David Michael Jewels focus on nonstandard art jewels. David Michael Jewels bring a unique and artistic approach to the crafts, designs, using beautiful and rare gems are a pure work of art. Each piece is handmade from start to finish, hundreds of hours lavished on each concept. David Michael still use traditional, centuries-old techniques, starting every idea with a watercolour sketch. Everything made by hand, delivering an exceptional work of jewellery art, with its own life and soul. They are spectacular and one of kind, high-end jewels only.
Founders of the Australian private jewellery atelier David Michael Jewels David and Michael Robinson twin brothers, originally from New Zeland currently reside in Australia, shared with me their journey in creating the most beautiful art jewels. Here's what they said...
David Michael Antique Rose Ring, with conch pearls, sapphires and diamonds.
Jewellery Pursuer: Please tell me about David Michael as a brand. How were the David Michael brand born?
Michael Robinson: We are identical twin brothers who design and make jewellery. We’re originally from New Zealand, but we’re now currently based in Australia Goldcoast. We make every jewel ourselves by hand, making our pieces extremely exclusive, our total production is approximately fifteen pieces per year that are available exclusively via Betteridge. We grew up surrounded by jewellery, our father has always worked as a jeweller and then had his own boutique for as long as we can remember, we would play in his workshop with all the tools before kindergarten so it was just natural for us to make things.
JP: Who is the designer and who is the maker in the jewellery making process?
MR: We both design and we both make things. I (Michael) do the jewellery renderings, we both handmake jewellery and set all the gems ourselves and then David does our photography, this way our jewels are completely made by us making them extremely unique.
JP: Who has more input in designs?
MR: My brother and I both make jewellery, so sometimes we will have more input than the other on the piece we are specifically making, but for the most part we have equal input design wise.
Sapphire and Diamond Oak Ring, David Michael.
JP: How does the idea of making the particular piece come about? Do you get jewellery request for a particular occasion or it will be another addition to a certain collection?
MR: We draw inspiration from nature mostly, but we’re also inspired by many other things like architecture, history and art to name just a few. The ideas are always ours, we do occasionally take on commissions from collectors that want us to design something unique for them, but again the design will be all ours.
JP: What inspired the "Argyle Pink Viola Ring" design?
MR: I think every artist has probably painted a flower, and every jeweller has equally made a flower, they are such a beautiful thing to be inspired by. Our workshop is in a very tropical area in Australia, we are surrounded by plants, flowers and nature. Viola’s have such a variety of colours to choose from and their reasonably low profile was a natural choice to turn into a jewel.
David Michael Argyle, Pink Viola Ring, Pink, Yellow, Green, Blue, Champaign and White Diamonds.
JP: When I see your jewellery or any drawings I am inspired with awe. They are so a museum quality. What's your say in this?
MR: Thank you. We respect the jewellery making craft immensely, historically artists would always paint their designs by hand so we choose to continue that tradition. I also think it creates a better finished jewel with a real soul and strong connection to its designer. Too much is lost in virtual renderings that are made in computer aided design programs, we like to make one of a kind things that are tangible.
David Michael jewellery rendering.
JP: You use so many different types of coloured diamonds in your collection, like champaign, pink, red and many more. This is very bold and wonderful. Do you get a request for it?
MR: We use a lot of coloured diamonds in our pieces because they are available in a very diverse natural colour palette that lets us create the look we want, but also because they are diamonds, they are a lot more durable than other coloured gems.
In the same way an artist would choose acid free canvas and the best paint available, that isn’t going to fade or damage easily over time, we often choose to use coloured diamonds because they will stand up to wear like no other gem and look just as good in hundreds of years as they do the day we finish making the piece.
David Michael jewellery gallery.
JP: What's the next challenge for David Michael brand?
MR: Tough question, every piece we make is one of a kind so every piece comes with new challenges, but we absolutely love that aspect so I’m not sure it would be considered a challenge. I guess our biggest challenge would be to get our work in front of the correct audience that appreciates what we create, I believe this is always an artists biggest challenge.
