A very long time ago, when I was in college, I worked at Tiffany & Co., when it was the epitome of elegance and grace in everything, from design to service. I once accompanied the T&Co. salesman (who appeared in the famous movie, Breakfast at Tiffany’s) on a trip to deliver a magnificent almond-shaped diamond, and we lived through an adventure worthy of a Pink Panther episode.
I spent much time working for the then Chairman, Walter Hoving. I was very lucky to have been exposed to true gentlemen and titans of industry when I was very young. It shaped me as a person and a worker. I learnt lessons then that are still applicable today.
I have fond memories of Tiffany’s, so I was absolutely enthralled with its new Tiffany Paper Flowers campaign that plays on the long ago Breakfast at Tiffany’s themes with a modern twist.
“Believe in Dreams” is Tiffany & Co.’s new video that launched the whimsical Tiffany Paper Flowers promotional campaign on May 3rd, 2018.
Imagine my disbelief when I studied the Tiffany paper flowers to discover that the 2018 Tiffany petals are a rearranged version of my sister’s 5-petal flower design, which is circa 1992. Wow. Just WOW!
The Diolun Designs items that my sister has created are all done using what is called the Greek/Roman Lost Wax method of casting, meaning that you sculpt the piece by carving it in wax, which is then used to create a rubber mold.
The wax melts, hence the “lost” in the name of the method. Once you have the rubber mold, you pour the noble metals, which become an individual one-of-a-kind piece. Once the piece comes out of the mold, you must polish it and finish it…one by one. Therefore, no one piece is exactly the same as another, because the jewelry is not machine stamped, the way most jewelry is done today. It is an artistically laborious process and a labor of love.
What all this means is that each item in Diolun’s collections have their own lines, curves, nuances and the like, which make each individual piece totally and truly unique. It is not like precision/laser copying done with a machine that might take a flower and go through its contours and reproduce it exactly the same. My sister sculpts by hand, not by precision machinery.
I used to believe in what Oscar Wilde said, that “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery…”.
JSSP World 