Collection Obsession: Ian Saud? for Kaiser Gems

It’s not often that I’m at a loss for words. When presented with a beautiful jewel, I could go on for a long time—and have—finding fun ways to describe it. But this time, my descriptions can add only so much to jewels that look like these. If a picture is worth a thousand words, consider this my first novel.

Click on each jewel for more information about it.

Los Angeles–based Kaiser Gems, famed for its custom cutting and gemstone design, has teamed with artist/designer Ian Saud? as its featured artist, and the results, as you can see, are mind-blowing. Dubbed the Mosaic collection, the lineup strikes a balance between edgy, and what can only be called very, very pretty. You know, like a leather-clad ballerina.

The California-born-and-bred Saud?, who specializes in the design of not only jewelry, but goodies like scarves and even furnishings, lends his very special eye to a range of jewels in the collection. Many of the pieces feature doublet stones with multicolor luminescence likened to that of a peacock feather, like the mother-of-pearl and green amethyst combination in several pieces shown here. Other pieces, however, are one-of-a-kind, like the awe-inspiring necklace with more than 118 cts. of aquamarine (at the top of this page).

It’s like a candy store filled with all of your favorite treats, and there’s no limit to how much you can hoard. Well, as much as you can afford to hoard—prices range from just under $1,000 to just under $100,000. I think your customers will be quite pleased with the variety of styles and prices and will find that the enviable designs are worth a little splurge, too.

My favorite pieces are both one-of-a-kind, pictured above. The first is a teardrop-shape ring, sprinkled with a potpourri of padparadscha and fancy color sapphires and diamonds. The second is a pair of geometrically influenced earrings, in which gemstones like tourmaline, precious topaz, spessartite, and zircon align.