study
verified his belief that designers had been repeating themselves for
centuries, principally because the sources of their ideas always had
been the same: plant and animal life, architecture and geometric forms,
to name a few. These had been used over and over again. There had been,
of course, some superficial refinements, but basically the designs
were much the same as those produced by the artists of the earliest
days. It would seem that contemporary designers could merely vary one
another's ideas, without contributing anything new or radically
different, to a point where the repetition and monotony of design were
really becoming'a serious drawback.
This
was an opportunity for an enterprising jeweler—to devise some new form
of design with a basic idea different from any ever known before; let
this new form have some assurance of lasting style value. The challenge
was too engrossing to be ignored and soon the first step was taken in
this quest for "something new under the sun." In effect this is how Mr.
Hoeffer describes the project:
Long,
difficult months of study followed during which countless numbers of
illustrations and examples of early and modern design were examined
from every conceivable point of view, until suddenly a great truth
became apparent: The Sun, of all Nature's forces, never had been
explored as a source of inspiration for jewelry design. Through the
ages men had gazed at the Sun, read with fascination of its power of
bestowing life. Some worshiped it, others analyzed its elements and
studied its influences. But no one had dreamed that in its shifting
rays the very body which brought life and fire to all precious gems
might hold some secret of value to the jeweler's craft.
Perhaps, it was thought, the shafts and spirals of light which pierced through banks of clouds in such overwhelm-
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