“Here without photos please”, they warn us. We have just entered what looks more like a kitchen than a laboratory. There are tools similar to utensils for preparing meals and also an oven, a setting worthy of the best Italian gastronomy. But what we’re really seeing are precision lasers, and instead of preparing food, gold is being melted down and emotions are being sculpted. We are at the creative heart of Pomellato, the iconic jewelry store in Milan, and they ask us to preserve the visual secret because they are bringing to life the most exclusive jewels that some celebrities will wear on the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival.

There is a rush and the workers pay little attention to us. Each work is a unique challenge for this Italian high jewelry firm. In the workshop, what most surprises at first glance is the craftsmanship that meticulously shapes the prototypes of the different collections, including Nudo, the most famous and distinctive of Pomellato, with ancestral techniques such as microfusion or casting. of lost wax

“Each jewel is created by hand and each step is supervised by the art director. The artisans give it size, shape and once the jewel has been designed, there is a creativity committee that decides which prototypes will be approved”, explains Verónica Castelli, our guide at the Pomellato atelier in Milan, who has invited the Magazine to present the artistic project. Crafted Emotions knot by local artist Alberto Maria Colombo.

In this confidential environment, that unique alliance between the house’s artisan legacy and the Milanese spirit of the emblematic designs of the house is captured in the smallest detail, which under the vision of Vincenzo Castaldo have gained strength and diversity. “Milan is different from other Italian cities, it has an intriguing personality, somewhat mysterious, less obvious, that you have to discover. The Milanese style is a mix between the creative energy that emanates from fashion, design and architecture and the cultural heritage of the city, expressed in a non-ostentatious elegance and sobriety, perfectly embodied in the Nudo collection”, says Castaldo, who He has been the firm’s creative director for twenty years.

The history of Pomellato began in 1967 in Milan when its creator Pino Rabolini revolutionized the sector with his prêt-à-porter philosophy and turned it into a symbol of creativity and colour. “The intrinsic value is undoubtedly in the materials -gold and gems-, but for us it goes beyond them. The distinctive design gives each collection its own personality”, says Castaldo with passion and simplicity.

The hustle of luxury continues in the workshop. After the creative process, it is time for the actual production of the pieces, one by one, with great delicacy and care. It is a universe of gold and diamonds that are molded by goldsmiths, polishers and setters, tamers of pink gold and other materials. It takes at least four days to assemble a classic size Knot, a ring in the colors of desire, which was born with the idea of ​​being a naked jewel in contrast to the most voluminous and ostentatious of the time. The collection was so successful that it has endured since its inception in 2001 and so unique that Pomellato holds international copyrights to both its design and cut.

Nudo lives embellished by stones of intense colors. The first rings came with vibrant hues like garnet, aquamarine, peridot, iolite, and red tourmaline. And to date there have been over 35 different gems set in these jewels thanks to a team that scours the globe in search of rare gems. “An exciting job, the best in the world”, admits Stefano Cortecci, Pomellato’s gem master and purchasing director. “You travel with a mission that is to find which stones are less and less available and with an eye on new clues trying to find new materials. It is extremely intriguing to search for and follow the rough stones from their origins, that is, directly from the mine”, he comments.

Nudo’s personality feeds on the findings of those trips like the new precious. “Traditionally, sapphires, emeralds and rubies are considered precious stones and have always been the protagonists in jewelry, but today in nature there are many precious stones with surprising, intriguing colors and also of great value, what we call the New precious. . There are precious stones that exceed the traditional ones, both in price and in demand: garnets, tanzanites, opals and tourmalines are the perfect examples…”, explains Cortecci, who does not hesitate to point out tourmaline as his favourite, because in it he sees thousands of nuances and tonalities, “In a single day you would have an infinite number of options to choose which one to wear according to the mood and the occasion,” says Cortecci.

The latest additions to the Nudo universe are three stone doublets with new combinations of green, purple and blue that offer variations to complete the perfect stack of rings or to wear just one. But the Nudo family goes further and in 2016 the firm launched the first earring, followed by a bracelet and a sautoir. Catene and Icónica are the other collections of the firm.

Rose quartz for empathy and lemon quartz for euphoria, amethyst for ambition, garnet for anger, blue topaz for vision, moonstone for awe, obsidian for boldness, white topaz for gratitude, the smoky quartz for independence and, finally, prasiolite for concentration. These are the ten Nudo gemstones that Alberto Maria Colombo has associated with emotions. The result is an artistic video that was shot in the famous and avant-garde Villa Necchi, built in the thirties in the center of the Lombard capital, an absolute symbol of Milanesità.

Crafted Emotions expresses the fine craftsmanship behind each of these Nudo jewels and the ability of each gem to evoke a rich inner world. Colombo has represented it by mixing photography, painting and artificial intelligence to conceive a series of female portraits against impressionist-style backgrounds, creating what she describes as “painting in motion”.

The emotions that Alberto Maria Colombo spread in Milan and that a model walked through Villa Necchi on a spring night are part of what Vincenzo Castaldo includes in his definition of elegance. “Nudo is a true powerful and multifaceted icon that screams elegance, and for me elegance is more of an attitude, a state of mind”, says Castaldo.

“It can be the color of a blue gem that reminds you of the sea, or a volume that gives you a feeling in a natural way, because emotions are as precious as gold and diamonds, and for us sentimental value and power of the jewel to evoke emotions are very important”, emphasizes the creative director of Pomellato, who confesses that one of his greatest satisfactions is to see the different interpretations that women give to their jewels. And I verified it for a few moments, when they put on my hand a light blue topaz ring that protrudes from the finger, of amazing size and with 57 irregular facets cut by hand. A whole trip to luxury and exclusivity! It was nice while it lasted.