John Hardy artisan image
IT MUST’VE been strangled to death in my past life,” laughs Janice Leung while reaching for the Cobra necklace resting on a velvet pad inside the clear glass cabinet. She unclasps its lock, tries it on her neck, and then she continues: “So that is why I am not really a necklace kind of girl.”
“I do not mind being strangled to death with that,” I tell her, supposedly meant as a joke that might be acceptable to those who work in the creative community. She is a jeweler. And on this particular Wednesday afternoon at the John Hardy nook in Rustan’s Cebu, fresh from her Hong Kong flight, her fingers are jazzed up with accessories, too: an oversized square-cut blue topaz cocktail ring with diamond piping, a silver ring with two pearls of unequal sizes, a dome ring embellished with tidbits of black sapphire, and well, of course, her wedding ring. The first three mentioned are from the eponymous luxury jewelry design house John Hardy, where she functions as the communications manager at the brand’s headquarters in Hong Kong.
Janice smells good—perfumed in Chanel Chance fragrance, perhaps?—and very put-together in a black lace shift dress with scallop neckline and sheer three-fourth sleeves. Everything in her wardrobe seems to usher the blue topaz teardrop earrings she’s wearing into the spotlight.
“Do not die for this,” she charmingly protests, quite a little surprising statement for a company that should rely on the subliminal message to customers to desire for more. However, John Hardy has always been very keen with character. While the design directions are set to please modern customers, the whole production obeys a traditional handwork process since 1975.
Cinta 18K White Gold Earring with white Quartz
The Canadian founder has subscribed to manual craftsmanship in giving birth to the seasonal series: from weaving solid castings to gilding them with decors. As a matter of fact, in contrast with other competing lines in the business that utilize technological advancement, everything begins with freehand pencil sketches.
“Head, heart and hand: It’s possible to use technology, which means we will design them on computers and produce these accessories, but it would also mean taking out people from their jobs. We do not want that to happen because they are artisan,” Janice said.
Some intricate patterns, moreover, can only be perfected by hand alone. In the case of the recent Legends collection’s superstar, the Cobra, interlinking sterling silver bracelets that would mimic the texture of a serpent’s scales takes four days. Inspired by the natural movement of the
reptile, in-house creative director Guy Bedarida assembled the Triple Coil Bracelet and the Cobra Ring that depicts the snake devouring a tanzanite stone.
His originals are visual translations of prominent Balinese mythical creatures. The fire-like figures of Naga—the gigantic dragon known for watering the rice fields in Indonesia en route daily from the underworld to its volcano lair —Eagle, Cobra and Macan are engraved either at the back of a ring or as filigree that clenches stone facets on pendants. On his first trip to Indonesia, Hardy believed that by insetting their images, one may invoke their strength and enchantment.
“There are a few stones and jewelry from our line that I could not wear because they contradict my personal energy. John Hardy collections do not necessary follow the science of Feng Shui.
It just happens that this kind of Balinese culture has been applied to it, and most of our clients appreciate that,” Janice shares.
Host Kris Janson in John Hardy Cinta
Apart from this lead platoon of bijoux, the Magic Cut cluster benefits from the Balinese essence of Taksu to summon spiritual blessedness, available in iridescent pieces made of blue topaz, green amethyst, lemon quartz and black chalcedony. The Bamboo set, on the other hand, best coincides with the brand’s advocacy in cultivating the environment: Every purchase finances the team to sow bamboo seedlings. “These artisans are very passionate with what they do, and we want that energy to be passed on to the wearer.
Machines can never offer that charisma,” she continues. “You wear that passion with you.”