Editorial Discoveries
484 articles
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A 1,109-Carat Rough Diamond Became a Family of Extraordinary Jewels
Lesedi La Rona was one of the largest gem-quality rough diamonds ever discovered. Graff acquired the stone and cut it into a collection led by a huge principal diamond, turning geology into precision craftsmanship. — via graff.com
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Cartier Has Been Turning a Panther Into Jewellery for More Than a Century
Cartier’s panther appears as rings, bracelets, brooches and necklaces, shifting between abstract geometry and highly detailed animal forms. Emerald eyes, onyx spots and sculpted gold give the pieces huge visual presence. — via cartier.com
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Van Cleef & Arpels Hides the Metal So the Gemstones Look Almost Seamless
The Mystery Set uses an intricate hidden setting system so rubies, sapphires and other stones appear to sit together with almost no visible prongs. The result is as much engineering as jewellery. — via vancleefarpels.com
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This Opera House Looks Like a Snowdrift Frozen Into Architecture
MAD Architects shaped Harbin Opera House as a pair of fluid volumes that seem carved by the northern climate, with a sweeping timber interior behind the white exterior shell. — via i-mad.com
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Bvlgari Turned a Snake Into One of Jewellery’s Most Recognisable Shapes
Serpenti wraps the body of a snake around wrists, necks and fingers using gold, gemstones and articulated construction. The scale patterns and coiled silhouettes make it unusually strong visual content. — via bulgari.com
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Tiffany Put a Tiny Diamond Bird on a Gemstone and Created a Jewellery Icon
Jean Schlumberger’s Bird on a Rock turns exceptional gemstones into miniature stages, with a small bird perched almost casually on top. The idea has survived for decades because it is playful, recognisable and spectacular at macro scale. — via tiffany.com
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Zaha Hadid Designed a Building That Looks Like It Was Folded From One Continuous Surface
The Heydar Aliyev Center flows from plaza to roof in sweeping white curves, deliberately avoiding the hard corners of conventional civic architecture. — via heydaraliyevcenter.az
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A Retired Boeing 727 Became a Hotel Suite in the Costa Rican Jungle
Hotel Costa Verde mounted an old aircraft fuselage above the forest and converted the cabin into a two-bedroom suite. The image of an airliner nose emerging through tropical trees does nearly all the selling. — via costaverde.com
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This Two-Person Submarine Is Built to Reach the Deepest Point in the Ocean
Triton’s 36,000-foot-rated submersible places two occupants inside a transparent pressure sphere designed for full-ocean-depth exploration. — via tritonsubs.com
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Black Dead Trees Stand in a White Clay Pan Beneath Namibia’s Red Dunes
Deadvlei’s scorched camel-thorn trees, pale ground and giant orange dunes create one of the world’s strongest natural colour contrasts. — via namibian.org
