Art Jewelry vs Fine Jewelry
Fine Jewelry should be defined as wearable articles used for embellishing high fashion that comprise of gemstones set in gold or silver. Such jewelry is frequently made by their designers and jewelers for the express purpose of being sold to enhance fashion wear. In the jewelry marketplace, such fine jewelry is often made as a commercial line of precious goods, e.g. Bird on the Rock for Tiffany, or the Macri or Opera line for Buccellati. Each piece may be unique but it still follows a uniform design concept. In this process, once designed conceptually, the jeweler can take advantage of one design and make similar yet different pieces to satisfy the inventory needs of many retail stores. Therefore, the disadvantage of fine jewelry rests in its lack of uniqueness; wholesale or retail --- this kind of jewelry all suffers from just being variations on the same theme. The display of a large volume of jewelry comprising of center stones set in gold and encircled by varying rings of diamonds is not inspiring for some buyers and observers.
Art Jewelry, as designed and advocated by Vivid Gems International, is made by the jewelry artist with the express purchase of creating a unique work of art that is specifically not suitable for the creation of a commercial line of jewelry. With serious intent to make something that is one-of-the-kind, the artist needs to choose from a wider variety of precious metal for the structural basis of the setting and also search for a wider color palette of gemstones in order to satisfy his or her need for artistry and uniqueness. One obvious example illustrates the point: The recent enthusiasm for titanium jewel rests in the material being one-fifth the weight and three times the hardness of 18K gold, all the while allowing for an explosion of approximately forty colors. This permits the design of much larger pieces with higher visual impact because it can dwarf gold jewelry only offered in yellow, white or rose. This quest necessitates a higher degree of technical expertise and often needs the development of new skills and tools. This extra demand for ingenuity, creativity and artistry often leads to a higher cost, but the end result makes it worthwhile.
As humanity evolved the way it must towards more things dependent of digital technologies and autonomous machines, Art Jewelry created by the human mind and hands becomes increasingly valuable and sought after.