While jewelry can be an elegant form of self-expression year-round, there is a distinct benefit to wearing it in summer. With an abundance of brighter, more intense sunlight during the day, gold and chromatic jewels tend to really gleam. Diamonds are particularly well-suited given their natural inner fire–an optical phenomena that can cast small rainbows and glitter in direct light. At the TAP studio, husband-wife designer duo Todd and Debra Pownell explore the vast possibilities of diamond jewelry.
Todd and Debra are infamous for their willingness to eschew the traditional and experiment with their settings. From their bench, we see a magnitude of presentations: spiky, reverse-set stones, undulating channel settings and hammered interlocking links among their favorite motifs… all of which achieve cohesion even in the most unusual shapes.
Dainty trapezoid-cut diamonds are like dew drops on an 18K chain, the links connected directly to small drilled holes in the stones. By suspending the diamonds rather than bezeling them, the maximum amount of light to passes through and refracts against the skin to add an additional dimension of texture.
In one of their most striking cocktail rings, ten marquise diamonds are nestled against an oxidized silver. The distinctive ovaline shape of this cut is typically used in the singular to give a piece of jewelry a “big” diamond feel. However, Todd and Debra set a cluster of smaller stones to maximize the glitter factor.
