Enamel in jewelry is an ancient art. People have been crushing glass into fine powder and painting the surface of jewelry since the time of pharaohs. The ancient Chinese have been creating jewelled boxes and intricate ornaments out of wired cloisonne pieces for more than a millennium. It is a technique that is age-old but essentially familiar.
This year, part of Wynn Wynn Ong’s Naga holiday jewelry collection for Firma and Felicity is rendered in enamel — fusing century-old techniques with modern technology to create deep glazes in modern cutting edge colors. Unlike the familiar old flowery pieces that have cluttered many a mother’s jewelry box or vanity tray, the bases and bodies of Wynn Wynn’s new pieces are stark, in shades of oyster gray, ivory, slate, steel, and onyx. Some are graced with large assymetric rocks, fuller even than a well-fed quail’s egg. Dark gleaming horn rings are mounted with an array of miniature, individual, brightly-colored Amazon frogs in sheer enamels that reveal an intricate pattern of spots that uncannily recreate the backs of real ones. A sizeable brown citrine-studded three-inch gecko flips over to reveal an underbelly in shocking scarlet.
The Burmese jewelry designer, noted for her talent, has once again successfully created the out-of-the-familiar and surreal.
Wynn Wynn Ong’s holiday 2008 enamel collection is available at Firma at G/F Greenbelt 3, Ayala Center, Makati City, telephone 757-4009) and Feliciity (Level 3 Shangri-La Plaza, EDSA, telephone 634-4244)