Style

21 April 2020

Christina Soubli, the art of filigree

Christina Soubli’s jewels made in filigree are of an almost divine beauty.

By Sandrine Merle.

 

 

Christina Soubli spent her childhood in the workshop of her goldsmith parents on a small island off the coast of Athens. After studying at Saint Martin’s School (London), she set up her workshop and show-room in the heart of Kolonaki, where I met her last October.

 

The outline

Her style is based on filigree, an ancestral technique consisting of stretching a metal wire and then twisting it on itself. The goldsmiths of the Mycenaean period already used it to make ornaments on belts and rings, amongst other things. The twisted wire is all Soubli needs, using its volume to make a ring, a triangular ring or a square ring. Shaped into a curved line, it also becomes an ear cuff. An outline enhanced by a nothing but a few shards of precious stones.

 

Space and form

Christina Soubli excels at toying with space and form. She creates magnificent balanced exercises where geometric shapes fit together. The circle, a reference to the sun, remains her favorite shape. Thanks to the interplay of scale and multiplication, it can be turned into a cuff or huge creoles. As none of these jewels are made using CAD, they retain all the micro-irregularities of hand-made artefacts, which gives them their incredible charm…

 

Divine beauty

Christina Soubli’s jewelry is radiant. It is created on the basis of just two materials and two colors. The almost pure 22-carat gold of a yellow with orange shades and the white of irregularly shaped freshwater pearls. The latter are available in a braid, creating the impression of having been knitted. “I fell in love with the pair of mini-creoles,” says Karine Berrebi, owner of the Karry’O Ggallery. They look like they were cut from gold lace… Superb.

 

SHOP NOW “Kricos” earrings, Christina Soubli

 

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