Today, she, along with his sister Martine - who was both a soul mate and, at 10 years older, a second mother to Zaavy - are the keepers of his flame. With the “Fabergé interlude” over, Chen was back ordering Zaavy’s designs. After the pair split five years later, Zaavy teamed briefly with Fabergé as the legendary makers of jeweled eggs sought to refresh the Russian-born company. With her financial help, Zaavy - who decided to forgo the family’s diamond business in exchange for globetrotting adventures that would take him from gemologist to designer - set up his first atelier in Paris in 2000. She was the Theo to Zaavy’s Vincent in a complementary relationship of finance and artistry forged by a love of beauty.
#Stardust memories professional#
It was the piece that Taiwanese businesswoman Lisa Chen - Zaavy’s professional and personal partner for 10 years and mother of their son, Milan - chose to purchase from his collection at the end of his life.
#Stardust memories series#
The Nymphéas Bracelet (2005) - a homage to Claude Monet’s “Water Lilies” series and the namesake of Zaavy’s 2007 exhibit in New York and London, a floral abstract in white, natural vivid blue, vivid yellow, vivid violet, vivid pink and vivid black diamonds alexandrites fire opals aquamarines moonstones rubies natural Padparadscha, blue, pink and violet sapphires tsavorites demantoids platinum yellow gold and silver.įew works, however, compare to his masterpiece, the Iris Bracelet (2011), composed of a central vivid yellow diamond enveloped in purple, yellow and white diamonds, sphenes, demantoids, tsavorites, palladium, gold and silver in a series of seemingly endlessly unfolding petals redolent of a yellow iris. The wavy, floral Ludmilla Ring (2003), from the “Ballet Series 2,” made of Padparadscha, violet and pink sapphires, spinels, platinum, gold and silver. The Seahorse brooch (2004), made of white and yellow diamonds, alexandrites, amethysts, aquamarines, demantoids, Paraiba tourmalines, colored sapphires, tsavorites, hauynes, gold and silver, with an elaborate cockscomb and jazz hands. Zaavy’s vision - of nature and light and gemstones as colors on a palette - was apparent in his creations. His fantasy was to direct a laser at it, for the world to be dazzled by the returning sparkle. “He once suggested putting a large, concave mirror, encrusted with diamonds, on the moon. Months before he died, he said to us, “I am already dead,” but then carried on as if he would live forever! He often acknowledged that he had been here before and would someday return. He thought of time in eons and knew his moment here would never be enough. However, he was undaunted by time and space, which he deemed to be inconsequential. “He was fascinated that, in addition to their beauty, diamonds resonated deep time. “Stardust is the origin of all matter in the universe, including the diamonds Frédéric ‘painted’ with and loved so much,” Taylor and Dubler write in the epilogue to the book, whose text is mainly by Gilles Hertzog.
The resulting book, “Stardust: The Work and Life of Jeweler Extraordinaire Frederic Zaavy” (fall, $75, 245 pages) - produced and packaged by the couple and published by Milan’s Officina Libraria - considers an elusive, mystical man who wanted to be the best jewelry designer there ever was and created richly textured works of art in gemstones that will long outlast a life lived briefly but fully. Taylor and Dubler would spend the last two years of Zaavy’s life photographing him, including in Spain, where artist Lorenzo Fernandez painted his portrait, and in Comporto, Portugal, where the painting was unveiled in the summer of 2011, a month before Zaavy died on Sept. Zaavy, who had survived esophageal cancer in 2007, had seen his cancer return, this time to his liver. The 2010 request, however, was different.
Over the previous 10 years, Zaavy would call the couple to chat about the proposed work until they finally met at The Carlyle in Manhattan in 2006 to talk about it. Ten years ago, the French jeweler Frederic Zaavy contacted John Bigelow Taylor and Dianne Dubler - the Highland Falls, New York publishers/photographers behind coffee-table tomes on Elizabeth Taylor’s jewelry and Madeleine Albright’s pins - about doing a book on his life and work. A new book by the Hudson Valley publishers of coffee-table tomes on Elizabeth Taylor’s jewelry and Madeleine Albright’s pins considers the brief life and fantastic art of French jeweler Frederic Zaavy.
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