Bringing the vibrancy of her Brazilian home to jewels

Colour and nature run through Silvia Furmanovich’s imagination and flow into her jewellery designs. Not only does she evoke the wonders of the natural world in her floral, butterfly and shell jewels, but she uses nature itself through coloured woods, bamboo and orchid petals.

Based in São Paulo, the Brazilian jewellery designer channels the energy of the Amazon rainforest and the flora, fauna and gemstones of... Read More

Bringing the vibrancy of her Brazilian home to jewels

Colour and nature run through Silvia Furmanovich’s imagination and flow into her jewellery designs. Not only does she evoke the wonders of the natural world in her floral, butterfly and shell jewels, but she uses nature itself through coloured woods, bamboo and orchid petals.

Based in São Paulo, the Brazilian jewellery designer channels the energy of the Amazon rainforest and the flora, fauna and gemstones of Brazil. She combines this energy with her vocation for jewellery design, which stems from her grandfather and father. A goldsmithing course brought back childhood memories of her father at his jeweller’s bench and Silvia knew she had found her path. She began her own chapter of the family’s jewellery journey in 1998 and, with her children now joining her in business, Silvia Furmanovich jewels are a truly family affair.

Just as creativity has passed through her own generations, Silvia is drawn to craft techniques that generations of skilled craftspeople have honed and developed. Her long-term collaborations with experienced Brazilian woodworkers have developed fine marquetry for her jewels using indigenous salvaged woods, known to locals for their natural bright colours. In other collections, Silvia researched nerikomi, a method of using clay to create marbled patterns, for her jewels inspired by Japanese kimono obi; she learnt about Mughal miniature painting for hand-painted jewels in her India collection, and worked with bamboo weavers in her Bamboo collection. To help her understand how best to apply these techniques to make beautiful and durable jewellery, Silvia teams with researchers from many different backgrounds, from craftspeople to university research groups.

Silvia combines these techniques with intriguing found artefacts to ensure that every jewel is unique. While tracing her Italian heritage, Silvia discovered antique cameos and micromosaics that now have a new home set in earrings from her Italy collection. Vintage lacquer and obi fabrics come alive on her clutch bags in her Japan-inspired collections. All these elements meet with Silvia’s high attention to detail, emphasis on craftsmanship and sustainable ethos and are brought alive in their pairings with the bright colours of Brazil’s gemstones.