Jewellery

High-quality and good jewellery has always had three pillars on which it rests, or three roots that establish it:

a) The aesthetic element
b) The symbolic character
c) The recoverability

When it comes to the question of how interesting a piece of jewellery is, aesthetics probably count the most in this day and age. The most common reason for currently wearing jewellery is certainly the idea that jewellery makes the wearer more beautiful. In considering the effect on the beauty of the jewellery wearer, we would need firstly to define the concept of beauty, or at least to know what influences the impression of beauty, and secondly to know the mechanisms by which jewellery participates in the expression of beauty.

Although we are all able and familiar with the effect of jewellery intuitively and with our aesthetic sensibilities, it is astonishing how little the theoretical-analytical side of this subject is developed and how little the mechanisms of beauty themselves are described and consciously applied by the professional world.

The question: “What is beauty?” has, of course, been examined in many scientific studies, and it is striking how clear and how simple the result of purely scientific research is: according to its analysis, beauty is first and foremost symmetry. For example, we perceive a face as more beautiful the more symmetrical it is. The ideal of beauty of a human being is very variable in the different cultures and eras as far as details are concerned. In today’s western world, for example, a slim body is perceived as more beautiful than a corpulent one, whereas in the Baroque era this was exactly the opposite. At a time when one famine followed the next and emaciated, ultra-slim people were the order of the day, one would not have expected otherwise. But these fluctuations do not affect the sense of symmetry. Symmetry was and is perceived as a feature of beauty in every culture.

Anyone who thinks that aesthetic sensibility is reserved only for humans and that animals have no sense of beauty is not only somewhat arrogant, but above all very inattentive. Aesthetics is a feeling, not a thought, and manifested itself together with the world of feelings already in the evolutionary stage of the animal kingdom, not only in the mental world of man. It is quite possible that aesthetics even plays a greater role in the animal world than in humans, whose abstract thinking, logic and calculating actions are clearly opposed to aesthetics. Let’s take a deliberate look at a peacock as it flaps its wheel of gorgeously coloured feathers to impress a conspecific. Let’s look at the love bower of a bird of paradise, and with what consistency the bird uses very specific colour combinations to furnish the bower. There is countless evidence of the profound aesthetic sensibility of animals, not least the colourful diversity of the animals themselves. Quite obviously, where camouflage by appearance was not crucial, evolution has allowed itself the luxury of developing a blaze of colour that indicates a deep aesthetic sensibility of the particular species. If a certain animal is more beautifully coloured than its conspecifics, and is perceived as more attractive by a potential mate, it has better chances in mate selection and can choose stronger, healthier and more capable mates. Thus, it has a greater chance of raising its young and reproduces more than its competitors. In the long run, this has led to the fact that in the course of evolution, fish and birds, but also certain insects, appear in a dazzling blaze of colour, which quite obviously takes into account the aesthetic sensibilities of this species.

When it comes to symmetry, we now know that animals also perceive a conspecific as more beautiful if its appearance shows a high degree of symmetry. For example, studies on chaffinches have shown that double-ringed males have a decisive advantage in their mate search compared to single-ringed birds. This advantage in mate choice goes so far that finches ringed on both legs, which are apparently more attractive (because more symmetrical), find more capable females, so that on average they can raise one cycle of young birds more per year.

So one of the mechanisms of how jewellery embellishes the look is by enhancing an impression of symmetry. The classic diamond stud earrings, for example, give the impression of symmetry of the face. If a point of light is placed at the outermost points of the face, at the same height, then these points of light are so striking for the optical perception that they suggest a strong symmetry of the face to the observer, even if it is actually not so symmetrical. Since the brilliant studs, as points of light on the earlobes, have exactly the same distance from the vertical centre line of the face, they usually additionally form an isosceles triangle with the highest point on the head, the vertex.

A diamond pendant, or a point of light on the extended vertical centre line of the face again suggests a degree of symmetry that overlaps the natural symmetry of the face. In addition, a perfectly placed pendant again makes an isosceles triangle with the tips of the ears, or with the ear studs, which in turn makes a perfect diamond with the apex.

The relationship of symmetry to beauty presented by science is only one of many mechanisms of how jewellery makes its wearer appear more beautiful. An even more important aspect of jewellery is certainly its “radiance”. That jewellery usually glows, or shines, is obvious. All materials that stand out due to their special light reflection are used in jewellery. The metal that glows the most is gold. It has been used for thousands of years as the most important basic element in high-quality jewellery. Gemstones – stones with a high transparency and a high refractive index – i.e. stones that “shine”, are the second foundation of good jewellery. The rule of thumb here is that the higher the refractive index of the stone, the more valuable the gemstone, or the more popular it is. The diamond, the gemstone with the highest refractive index (2.51), is also the most sought-after of all gemstones. The pearl, with its luster, also falls into the same category and finds a corresponding popularity.

At first glance, or superficially, the radiance or glow of precious stones and metals is probably an analogy to the radiance of the eyes. We can best experience how much the eyes shine at night when our car headlights catch the pair of eyes of an animal. But eyes don’t just shine visually. They radiate above all psychically. A radiant pair of eyes signals joy, love, balance and, last but not least, youthfulness. The eyes of children or young people simply shine more than the eyes of grumpy old grumblers. A joyful gleam in the eyes is a sign of welcome, a message of acceptance.

In the case of the precious metal, the radiance of gold is certainly a symbol of the light of the sun. Again, the root of the mechanism of why radiant light is perceived as pleasant goes very deep. The expression “My sunshine” as a term of endearment also proves that the shining of the sun and its symbol, the shining of gold, refers to the essence of the human being, i.e. to a shining of his soul, rather than to something external.

The philosophical subject area surrounding the radiance of jewellery and its meaning is very wide-ranging and almost unfathomable. Here, many aspects combine and ultimately lead to a path that takes us all the way into the essence of creation if we follow the trail of the ray to its origin. Radiant light is a main characteristic of the highest level of consciousness, of experiencing one’s own soul, of the divine oneness that underlies everything. In pretty much all descriptions of prophets and sages in which they report encounters with God or higher beings, a radiant light appears. Often the supernatural beings are also “figures of light” themselves.

Coming from another approach, the purely physical-scientific one, light is the only building block of this universe which is unchanging. Everything else, even time, must be subordinate to the light. As Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity shows, time and space are relative because the speed of light is always the same from any position. Light is the one element in this universe that is not yet exhaustively understood, and which, with its always constant speed, breaks every law of logic. The radiation of light is the only constant element to which all laws of nature must subordinate themselves and which forces all other processes in this universe into relativity.

Thus, the “radiance” of a person is probably his most essential characteristic for the inner substance and his worthiness. Whether someone is radiant about their eyes, which expresses deep joy, awareness or love, whether someone is radiant about their mental clarity or sharpness, whether they are radiant about their physical beauty, or whether someone simply has an attractive “radiance”, which you can feel but cannot really define, it is always the “radiance” of a person that makes the difference as to whether they seem attractive or insignificant to us.

Thus, the radiance of jewellery is certainly the main reason why jewellery has been used for many millennia as an “expression amplifier” for the high quality of body, mind and soul.
Besides the aesthetic aspect, the symbolic character is an important element of jewellery. The expression of a symbol is generally used far less in today’s world than it was in earlier times. Although this aspect still exists in jewellery, especially of course in the case of wedding and engagement rings, most jewellery today is probably worn for purely decorative reasons. Thus, jewellery today loses an important aspect and often drifts a bit towards superficiality.

This was completely different in the early Middle Ages, in antiquity and the later Stone Age. In those days, jewellery was almost always a symbol first and something aesthetic only secondarily. First and foremost, jewellery was of course a status symbol at the time. For example, in the ancient Roman Empire, wearing pearl jewellery was forbidden by law to ordinary citizens. This privilege was reserved only for the nobility. Crest rings, amulets for protection, religious symbols such as crosses – in earlier times jewellery always contained a message or had a special meaning for the wearer.

Fine jewellery was and is such a beautiful bearer of resolutions, of the symbolic expression of deep knowledge, of the vicarious representation of higher principles. But those who live only in career, possessions and status have no need to be reminded of an inner resolution, who have no need to give visible expression to their inner agreements with themselves, their own insights, visions or dreams.

Ultimately, however, the need for an opening into the inner expanse, for a strong inner life, a sharpened consciousness that sees not only the surface but also the depths, still lies dormant in all of us. Living not only in the daily routine of our problems, obligations and superficial desires, but also in the infinite expanses of the inner or higher planes, ultimately makes our lives so much more worth living, and possibly has more meaning than fulfilling all our desires for career and success. Drawing strength and inspiration from an alternative world that is independent of external circumstances would lift us above being mercilessly “at the mercy” of our everyday lives. But in the world of our principles, our understanding, our resolutions, our longing to live, without any link to the outer world, something is dry and leads to too big a gap between the inner and the outer. Symbols that represent the inner elements in the outer life, that carry the inner to the outer, messengers of the otherworldly values and worlds and our own resolutions and agreements, would be a key point for the integration of our two environments, the inner and the outer.

High-quality jewellery with symbolic power can achieve a lot here. When we bring a new principle, a new way of behaving, a new friendship, a new insight on board our lives, a symbol in physical factuality would be a bridge from the beyond, or from the “inside” into this world, into our everyday life. A piece of jewellery with symbolic power, which reflects an inner aspiration, a resolution, a vision, transports a reminder of the resolution or the realisation, a bit of willpower, a bit of longing into our everyday consciousness with every conscious glance we cast at the jewel.
The third element in high quality jewellery is value. Jewellery has always been, and still is today, a carrier and store of “value”. In earlier times, it was the treasuries of princes and kings that ruled the world. Jewels, gold and silver were the backbone of any economy and the material basis of order in any society. The capacity to store “value” was so gigantic in jewellery in antiquity that, for example, the general Vespasian allegedly financed the first Jewish War around 66 AD in large part with a pearl earring from his mother.

Even if other storage media for large values are available today, high-quality jewels are still a valuable asset that defend their value much better than any other economic good due to their timelessness and the increasing rarity of precious stones. The value aspect of the jewel can hardly be separated from the aesthetic one. A high-quality piece of jewellery must be “real”. An imitation, silver-gilt with synthetic gemstones, may look similar to an original, but ultimately does not have the expressiveness and certainly not the “flair” of an exclusive jewel.

Thus, high-quality precious metal alloys such as gold and platinum combined with natural-coloured diamonds or gemstones are the best medium to embody all three aspects of the jewel – aesthetics, symbolism and value.
Whether yellow gold, white gold or rose gold is used is the personal decision of the wearer. Today, white gold is more popular than yellow gold in Europe and the USA. The reason is the impression that white gold looks more sporty than yellow gold. This probably goes back to the association of the shiny white gold with the shine of steel. Whether an archetypal memory of the shine of weapons, e.g. swords, is the reason, or whether the hardness of steel is associated with the sight of the white shine, in any case the steely shine of white gold expresses a flair of hardness, sportiness, strength of will. As long as the ideal of beauty for women favours a figure that is more masculine than feminine and has stern facial features rather than lovely, round ones, white gold will probably be more popular than yellow gold or rose gold.

Niveau élevé jewellery tries to do justice to all three aspects of a high-quality jewel. In order to give the aesthetics the greatest possible expression, not only are the shapes, colours and materials chosen to create the ideal, most harmonious combination, but the most important basic building block of the expression of jewellery, the “radiance”, is started with.
The group of companies around Niveau élevé, in particular their diamond cutting company Aditi Diamonds Pvt. Ltd., has developed their own brilliant cut variations that perfect the radiance of the diamond in such a way that not only do the angles of the facets give the best overall reflection of light and the best possible dispersion. The proprietary cut variations also reveal a clearly visible light pattern under a special kaleidoscope loupe. The special cuts are designed to show a light star with light rays when viewed from the top, and a 24-petalled flower when viewed from the back. The former is the symbol for inner radiance, the latter the symbol for harmony and perfection.
Particular emphasis is placed on the aspect of meaning and symbolism. Without exception, the jewellery pieces of Niveau élevé have a link to a symbol, a reference to an abstract principle or express a relation to a philosophical aspect.

The first jewellery series by Niveau élevé consequently deals with the theme that touches us the most: Love. Love is a force that is so all-encompassing and powerful that hardly anyone is in a position not to have to deal with this subject. There would, of course, be countless possibilities to find a symbol for love, which would then be found in a certain type of jewellery and illuminate the philosophical character of this theme. Thus, the heart is generally regarded as a symbol of love and accordingly heart motifs are used a lot in jewellery design. But the heart has been used as a symbol so often over the centuries, and for so many different things, in relation to love that it now smacks somewhat of kitsch. Niveau élevé has chosen a symbol that goes back to ancient Greek and Roman mythology, the arrows of Eros (the Greek god of love) and Cupid (the Roman god of love) respectively.

These two deities are actually identical. Like so many things, the Romans also adopted gods from Greek culture. Ultimately, the Roman religion was a state religion that used the Greek deities as models, gave them a new name and then placed them in the pantheon as Roman deities. Thus the Roman goddess of love Venus is actually the Greek goddess of love Aphrodite and the Greek god of love Eros became the god Cupid in Rome. Eros and Cupid have some special features that distinguish them from the usual gods of the ancient world. Usually, the ancient deities were figures who administered their special profession with much strength, power, wisdom and all kinds of magic. But Eros and Cupid are child figures, who were also often depicted as blind. To represent the “most powerful force of this creation” through a blind child is tantamount to surrender. Whereas with all the other deities of ancient cultures, such as Zeuss, Apollo, Athena, Hades, in each case a certain force or an abstract principle of this creation finds explanation and its mechanism is worked out mythologically, the prophets and seers, the founding fathers of the ancient religions capitulate here and do not explain the basic principle of love, but only two small but not insignificant details: the apparent indiscriminateness of manifesting love and the impossibility of resisting an incipient infatuation. The child deities have only one task, they shoot their arrows into the hearts of people without reason and thought, who, once hit, can no longer escape their fate of infatuation.

The ancient mythologies, especially the Greek and Egyptian ones, which are ultimately the models of the Roman ones, tried with much wisdom to represent the abstract forces and principles of life and creation through symbols and to put an originally gnostic understanding into a mythological symbolic language, which should enable the few people of a high intuitive and prophetic level to comprehend the insights on their own level. The “initiates”, the high priests, the church fathers, thus had a kind of translator’s manual through mythology, with the help of which they could understand the abstract, invisible forces and basic principles of this creation within themselves, or draw their knowledge from the knowledge of the authors of the myths. Those myths were never meant to be simply “believed” in their symbolism as they were written. Their symbolic language was there to “see through” to the invisible, abstract essence of the phenomenon. The uneducated masses, however, had no opportunity, neither intellectually nor in terms of time, to delve deeper into religion and simply believed in the parables and symbols as they were written down.

That the prophets and sages of ancient Western culture could not trace love, that most powerful of forces or principles, could not analyse the basic principle of love, and ultimately found no real explanation for love, is probably because the pantheistic mythology, which is based on a multitude of separate deities and principles, does not go deep enough to be able to recognise the basic principle of love. Thus they only recognised and described the facts that love apparently chooses the victims of its manifestation indiscriminately, and that love is so strong that it cannot be resisted. In Asian mythology, for example in ancient Indian mythology, there are very well-founded insights into the principle of love. The ancient Indian philosophies of the Samkhya, the Vedas and the Upanishads, are based on a monistic attitude in which there is only one God who contains everything, including creation itself. God gave rise to creation by obscuring in a part of Himself, the knowledge that He is that part. Creation is thus a part of God that has lost the knowledge of its origin and its very identity in order to give God the possibility to experience itself also from alienation, from the point of view of the “other than itself”. Love is that principle which intuitively recognises the underlying unity in a “beloved” partner and feels completely drawn to him or her, because in its deepest inner being it feels the unity of being with this person. Love, then, is a form of recognition of the actual unity of everything on a divine basis, but not full recognition, rather a kind of foretaste, related to a single human being.

However, the Greek or Western ancient mythologies did not reach that depth of explanation of the phenomenon of love, since they did not assume a general divine unity of all elements of this creation. They merely came to the realisation that love is apparently indiscriminate and unconquerable. They then expressed these two phenomena in the parable of Eros / Cupid.

Niveau élevé picks up on the symbols of the Greek and Roman gods of love in its “Arrows of Destiny” jewellery line by cutting the diamonds in this series in such a way that, with a colour-separating magnifying glass, Cupid’s arrows of light become visible in the brilliant-cut diamond, or the hearts, if you look at the diamond from the back. The message of the jewellery line, however, is not that one should remember a basic philosophical principle via this symbol and work on oneself. The message is quite different: The fateful powerlessness with which, according to ancient mythology, one faces the power of love (hence “Arrows of Destiny”) is not so indomitable after all. The powerlessness and the fatefulness normally result simply from a passivity which inevitably leads to the fact that the abstract forces (in this case love) manifest themselves either according to their own laws, or according to the principle of chance. If we were active in this area, if we took the initiative in the area of love with commitment, willpower and the corresponding energy, then we could have quite a say in the matter.

In order to move from passivity to activity, in order to be able to take the initiative again, we now give the lover, or even the one abandoned or neglected by love, an instrument – jewellery with the insignia of the love gods Cupid and Eros. This instrument, properly used, has three functions: First, it leads to the path of initiative, to becoming aware of love, to looking closely, to taking action. Secondly, it is an ideal means to be able to convey a message of love, ultimately a declaration of love. And thirdly, it is a strong symbol of commitment when a friendship ring (memoire ring) with the arrow and heart symbols, or an engagement ring, pendant or bracelet is given and worn as a gift. It is the living and physically visible symbol of an inner channel of connection that is opened with the giving of a gift and that should not be allowed to sink back into passivity, but should be nurtured.

The Arrows of Destiny line, with its specially cut diamonds, is not the only jewellery line of élevé level. Niveau élevé makes high-quality jewellery in many variations, which always takes into account all three basic principles of good jewellery:

Aesthetics Symbolic power Value

The philosophical aspect of the jewels is always of particular importance. Good jewellery, like watches, is an instrument for self-identification or self-discovery. Niveau élevé jewellery claims that it does not leave the symbolism or the “mythology” of the piece in question to the intuition of the individual. Instead of approaching the appreciation of a jewel through an unconscious “like”, Niveau élevé establishes a clear principle, explains it, creates a comprehensible symbolism, optimises the jewel in relation to that philosophical aspect. Niveau élevé focuses the aesthetics, the choice of stones, the choice of materials on the message of the jewellery and creates an integral whole in which the three elements of aesthetics, symbolic power and intrinsic value are found and mutually potentiated in an overall harmony.

A piece of Niveau élevé jewellery is always based on a clear, abstract principle or philosophy. It always tries to represent this principle and embody it in the physical world. The jewel of Niveau élevé is always fused in its aesthetics with this principle, not only expressing the harmony and beauty of the jewel, but also opening up this additional affiliated world, letting another mystery shine through. In addition, Niveau élevé uses only the highest quality, genuine materials. No colour-treated diamonds or precious stones are used, no cheap precious metal alloys, no mass machine processing. With a piece of Niveau élevé jewellery, you always know that a diamond is a real, natural diamond and not a zircon or synthetic diamond. You always know with a coloured diamond that it is genuine and true to colour, not irradiated or pressure/heat treated. The same goes for coloured stones in Niveau élevé jewellery. Since the jewellery of the house Niveau élevé is always exclusive, made individually or in small series, it is never mass-produced by machine. The diamonds or gemstones are individually composed, the piece of jewellery is mounted by goldsmiths and set by jewellery setters.

The jewels of our brand are therefore always crafted according to the principle of value and exclusivity, so that when the deposits of diamonds and gemstones become rarer in the future, they will increase in value and not lose it. Every 15 to 20 years, the world economy doubles. So twice as many mobile phones are produced, twice as many cars, twice as many homes, etc. But the deposits of diamonds and precious stones do not double. On the contrary! In 2006, 180 million carats of rough diamonds were still being mined. In 2015, it was just 127 million carats. The situation is similar with high-quality coloured gemstones. So we have a situation where high quality jewels, which are made with the best stones and materials, do not lose the value that is in them, but maintain or even increase it. In 2006, about 100 million mobile phones were produced worldwide. At the same time, about 180 million carats of rough diamonds were mined worldwide. In 2015, 1423 million mobile phones were produced worldwide but only 127 million carats of rough diamonds were mined. Whereas in 2006 there were 1.8 carats of rough diamonds per mobile phone, in 2015 there were only 0.08 carats of mined rough diamonds per mobile phone. A similar calculation can be made with pretty much all consumer goods. The result is always that the amount of economic goods produced increases strongly in relation to the amount of diamonds or gemstones found. However, the rarer diamonds or gemstones become in relation to other consumer goods, the higher their price rises.

Like the watches, jewellery from Niveau élevé always comes with an accompanying document in which the quality of the stones, the fine metal content, etc. are documented.

Owning a piece of jewellery, or a watch, of élevé level will hopefully bring about a change in the wearer. Those who take the brand’s claim seriously will actively deal with the jewel or the watch, will work on themselves, will become a little bit more themselves. But individual change is not the only consequence. The buyer thus also enters the circle of those who search for the hidden truths, who try to look behind the surface, who attach more importance to inner growth than to the exterior. He becomes a member of the family of Niveau élevé, which tries to strive for a new direction, to reflect a different harmony, to follow a different path.