“Walk with your eyes open and the world will inspire you” is a personal credo for Stefan Hemmerle, the third-generation owner of Hemmerle, the Munich fine jewelry house famous for employing rare gems and atypical materials in its pieces. While visiting an antiques store, Stefan’s open eyes landed on a circa–19th-century Italian decorative wood box topped with two micromosaics depicting a man and woman in a countryside. He envisioned the Lilliputian paintings in earrings—so they were sliced off, backed in 18k white gold, and framed with jade green–tinted copper. “My father was inspired by the idea of something he had never seen,” says Christian Hemmerle, Stefan’s son and a creative director. “But that’s almost always the inspiration for us.”Eccentric QualitiesHumble copper isn’t usually used in fine jewelry, but “it’s not about the materials, it’s about get