Cinnamon & Sugar

Ice crystals cover the window pane, against which a little boy is pressing his nose. Behind him, candles light up the festively decorated room. There’s an aroma of cinnamon, which the mother is generously drizzling onto the rice pudding together with sugar. She will call the family to the table in a moment. It is childhood memories like these that inspired Carlo Mutschler to create his new collection. “I was born in winter and have always had a fondness for the cold season, candlelight, cosiness,” the head of the Beyer Goldsmith’s Department enthuses, as he twirls a rod-shaped pendant between his fingers and makes it sparkle in the light of the spotlight above him.

SUGGESTED BY A CUSTOMER
Several dozen white diamonds are scattered seemingly at random over the red-gold surface of the item of jewellery. Just as if they had been spontaneously sprinkled across it. Mutschler has christened the first winter-
themed Beyer collection “Cinnamon and Sugar”. The pendant, which can be worn on a chain over a turtleneck jumper whether for a gala dinner or at the office, is accompanied by two smaller rods of the same design that
turn out to be dainty stud earrings.

This is complemented by a curved, almost youthful-looking open ring that also appears well-suited to everyday wear, despite the multitude of brilliant-cut diamonds it is encrusted
with. Next to it sits an elegant ring with a large brown diamond in the centre, surrounded by a host of little sparkling stones.

“AS A RESULT OF THE WEARER’S MOVEMENTS, IT’S ALWAYS SPARKLING SOMEWHERE.”

The starting point for the new creations was the casual remark of a customer who admired a brown gemstone at Beyer and said: “Oh, that’s pretty, really cinnamon-like.” Mutschler says it went ‘ding’ inside his head.
“The lady’s words really stuck with me,” he recalls. “Just thinking about the spice triggered a warm, homely feeling of happy times in my childhood deep inside me. I really wanted to make use of this association, but at first I didn’t know how.”

Then the brilliant idea came to him. Working with his two colleagues Remo Hüppi and Jonathan Gafafer, Mutschler developed a completely new setting technique within days – the Sugar Setting. This process enables the Beyer jewellers to create pieces of jewellery that give the impression that sugar has been sprinkled on them at random. “We succeeded at first go,” says Mutschler, not without a hint of pride. Using a new type of
engraving and setting device that works with air pressure, depressions are milled here and there in the precious metal and the stones are inserted into the red gold in such a way that they are positioned at different heights. Mutschler: “As a result of the wearer’s natural movements, it’s always sparkling on the surface somewhere. Overall that produces an incredible effect.”