4 C Jewellery Collection by Hanna Korhonen is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2022 Bronze A' Design Award in Jewelry Design Competition Category.
BronzeJewelry· 2022
4 C Jewellery Collection
Client: Hanna K Design & Jewellery
Bronze A' Design Award Winner in Jewelry Category
Verified Award Winner
Verify Award Status for #126078The Design
About 4 C Jewellery Collection
4C is a jewellery collection of necklaces and earrings made of recycled sterling silver. The pieces show diamond outlines instead of real stones, offering an ethical and ecological alternative to genuine diamonds. The shapes are created with 3D modelling, wax printing and lost wax casting, and are then assembled and finished by hand. Four cuts are included: brilliant, princess, marquise and pear. Polished, matte patina and gilded finishes add contrast and highlight the three-dimensional form of each piece.
The Recognition
About the Bronze A' Design Award
4 C Jewellery Collection is a Bronze A' Design Award winner, a highly prestigious recognition granted to outstanding designs distinguished by creativity, ingenuity, and astuteness. Bronze winners are amply skillful and strikingly creative artifacts that authenticate the vast experience, imagination, and resourcefulness of their designers. 4 C Jewellery Collection is expected to be a highly regarded, admired, and cherished object that is notably professional and innovative. This Bronze A' Design Award-winning design incorporates best practices in art, science, design, and technology, and is excellent for its attention to detail. 4 C Jewellery Collection splendidly satisfies needs, touches desires, charms feelings, and appeals to curiosity.
Interviews
Grand Interview
Your innovative approach to transforming traditional diamond aesthetics in the 4 C Jewellery Collection challenges conventional luxury perceptions - could you elaborate on how this conceptual shift reflects broader changes in contemporary jewelry design?
The collection serves as a direct counter-approach to traditional diamonds, their dazzling, almost blinding sparkle, and the social status they represent. By stripping away the sparkle, the piece is reduced to a "wireframe model," setting the diamond shape in a completely new light. This shift gives room to the pure graphic form, making the piece an open geometric object where the inside and outside can be viewed simultaneously. It reflects a trend where luxury is defined by intellectual geometry and concept rather than material cost, bridging the gap between high luxury and bold, abstract unisex design.
The 4 C Jewellery Collection uniquely employs 3D technology to reveal typically hidden diamond cut geometries - what inspired you to make these invisible mathematical patterns the focal point of your design?
The idea brewed in my mind after I was working on a wireframe-based, geometric custom jewellery piece for a client. Normally, a diamond's facets and mathematically precise cuts are only visible at extremely close range under a magnifying glass, and they are especially hard to see all around once a stone is set. I wanted to reveal the mathematical design and beauty of gemstone cuts on a large, accessible scale so that anyone can look "inside the diamond" to see the absolute precision of its lines.
How does the 4 C Jewellery Collection's ethical stance on diamond alternatives align with your creative vision, particularly in terms of maintaining luxury appeal while promoting sustainability?
The collection carries a strong ethical message: these are "diamond" pieces you can wear if you have concerns regarding the sustainability or ethics of real gemstones. The luxury appeal is maintained not by the sparkle of a mined stone, but through sophisticated craftsmanship, 3D precision, and striking material finishes (like gold plating and acid whitening on 925 sterling silver). Sustainability is also centered in my way of work as all the precious metals are almost completely recycled. As a metaphor with 4C collection, stripping away the blinding sparkle reveals a beautiful, delicate inner core, symbolizing that beneath anyone's outer shell lies beauty.
Behind the Design
Press Kit
Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.
- Unique Properties
- 4C jewellery collection provides a new way to wear diamonds and acts as an ecological and ethical alternative to genuine diamonds and their sparkle and status.
The diamonds in the collection are made with 3D-technology to resemble the outlines of different gem cuttings created with precise mathematics and technique, and show the beauty which is usually left unseen.
There are four different cuts; brilliant, princess, marquise and pear, and a limited edition heart cut.
The different finishes; mirror polish and matte patina or gilding, provide contrast to highlight three-dimensionality of the collection. - Dimensions & Packaging
- Length of the necklace chain 800 mm. Sterling silver chain is 2.3 mm thick anchor chain. Optional omega chain length 450 mm and thickness 1.8 mm.
For example brilliant large "diamond" Width 35 mm x Depth 20 mm x Height 35, small "diamond" Width 10.5 mm x Depth 6 mm x Height 10.5 mm.
The 4C jewellery collection comes in the classic Hanna K Design & Jewellery box with a logo. Materials: carton, suede. Colours: black, rose gold. - Tags
- diamond, diamond jewellery, statement jewellery, silver, jewellery, necklace, gemstone, ethical, controversy, gala jewellery
- Production Technology
- Design was created with 3D-modeling, high resolution wax printing, and lost wax casting in recycled sterling silver, made by advanced professionals. It's assembly; soldering, filing and sanding, and finishing; polishing, matte finishing, gilding and patina, is made by hand with traditional goldsmith work.
The 3D-technique was chosen to support the idea behind the jewellery collection; precise gem and diamond cutting practise. - Design Challenge
- The design challenge was to create jewellery which is beautiful and delicate by itself but at the same time would play as a conversation starter about ethical and ecological aspects. The design provides light and shadow in its finishing to support this point.
The realization challenge for me was to step out from my comfort zone and instead of creating jewellery collection by hand I was to choose computer aided 3D technology, which offers the perfect tools for this project. Accurate enough 3D wax printing technology had entered in the industry just in time. - Research
- Project began as wire jewellery tests made first in metals and paper. Accurate 3D wax printing entered in the industry to create precise models and print as wax to cast them in silver.
Details in gem cutting is the hidden gem in the industry. At the same time ethical perspective of gems is the talking point in our field. The 4C collection points an ethical view for this and shows the beauty of the diamond cuts by four most familiar cuts. 4C is a statement piece for the user and the designer. - Inspiration
- The name of the 4C collection comes from the components that affect the value of the diamond: cut, carat, colour and clarity.
Stripping a prestigious and valuable diamond into a wire pattern puts it in a new light. The removal of the sparkle gives space to the shape and the jewellery becomes a very graphic object, the inner and outer surface of which can be viewed at the same time.
Ethical and ecological aspects of the diamond industry are the talking point right now. 4C collection are jewellery with diamonds without diamonds. This is my statement piece. - Project Duration
- The project started in the beginning of 2017 with the first necklace and earring set. The whole collection, four different necklaces and a dozen different earrings, was finished in September 2020 in Kuopio, Finland.
- Operation Flow
- 4C necklace is a long, solid chain with a small and large diamond pendant. Small diamond connects the chain which works without a lock. The necklace is put on easily just by hanging it around one's neck.
Individual pendants in omega chain have a silver carabiner lock in the chain.
Different versions can be used separately or layered for a more prestigious gala styled look. - Patents
- Copyrights belong to Hanna K Design & Jewellery Oy, Hanna Korhonen, 2020
- Image Credits
- Image #1 : Photographer Teemu Töyrylä, Studio Töyrylä, 4C collection, 2020
Images #2-5: Photographer Hanna Korhonen, Hanna K Design & Jewellery Oy, 2020
Images #4-5: Hanna K Design & Jewellery Oy, 2020
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