he collection was presented to journalists in a darkened room, entered through another space where a composition by the hand of ikebana master Atsunobu Katagiri silently greeted guests. Only at close quarters did it become apparent that this mass of plants was not fresh that morning but quietly taking its final bow, certain flowers bending under the weight of the hours, abandoning their petals, on the cusp of disintegrating, disappearing, having given all that they had: their beauty.

Impermanence — the name Boucheron’s creative director Claire Choisne has chosen for her latest high jewellery collection — was, without question, the most talked-about this year. How could anyone remain indifferent to these six botanical arrangements, these precious ikebana crafted from the most unlikely materials: borosilicate glass, diamonds stitched with nylon thread, hairs plucked from Japanese paintbrushes, white ceramic, black Corian, bio-resin, black sand, Vantablack^® pigment…

Claire Choisne, Boucheron Creative Director

©Alexandre Tabaste

Each of the six ensembles within the collection is described as a Composition and the term could not be more appropriate as each is indeed composed from several pieces - 28 for the entire collection – arranged in the style of Japanese ikebana. Composition N° 6, for example, comprises a tulip, a eucalyptus branch and a dragonfly. “The tulip can be worn as a brooch, as can the eucalyptus branch,” notes Claire Choisne. “The dragonfly is worn as a single asymmetrical earring.” The translucent tulip appears to have been cut from rock crystal but as Claire Choisne explains, “We wanted to capture the flower’s immense delicacy, which would never have been possible with rock crystal. Instead we fashioned it from borosilicate glass, which is a much tougher glass, used to make test tubes. We then encrusted it with diamonds.”

An arrangement by ikebana master Atsunobu Katagiri.

©Boucheron

The result commands silence. Is any other response possible? No words can describe this experience, how it feels to be submerged by so much beauty illustrating nature’s slow disappearance. The eyes move from one composition to another but the brain doesn’t follow, incapable of processing what it sees. A thistle so lifelike one can feel the prick of its spikes, how was it made? How did that delightful little caterpillar appear? All questions we put to Claire Choisne.

Europa Star Jewellery: You’ve named the collection Impermanence. What is it intended to express?

Claire Choisne: It is a homage to nature as it vanishes before our eyes, expressed as six botanical compositions inspired by ikebana. For this disappearance to become visible I used a gradient of non-colours, transitioning from the transparency of the first composition to the white of the second and becoming progressively darker until the absolute black of the final composition, in Vantablack®.

Boucheron, Carte Blanche 2025, Impermanence, Thistle brooch, Composition N° 5. The thistles’ spiny flower heads were 3D printed using plant-based resin. Without a metal structure, it was impossible to set diamonds into the flowers. The artisans had to develop a new setting technique, hand-sewing more than 800 diamonds into the alveoli.

This isn’t the first time you’ve designed a collection with an underlying theme of nature preservation. Or Bleu in July 2024 also carried an environmental message.

Absolutely, it’s become something of an obsession! [laughs] As jewellers, our creations are made to last for all eternity and I wanted to capture this impermanence for ever. I enjoy working with this notion of time, trying to seize the ephemeral, capture its beauty and crystallise it in jewellery. Which is something we know how to do at Boucheron.

You learned the intricacies of this art from an ikebana master. Did you choose the flowers in the collection?

Yes, and the compositions. Frédéric Boucheron never composed nature in a particular way for his jewellery. He always took it as it was, so choosing to emulate the highly structured style of ikebana in a collection could have been seen as deviating from this. Then when I went to Japan, to a school which has been teaching ikebana for more than five hundred years, it occurred to me that Boucheron and the Japanese share the same vision, the same love of nature. Ikebana means “making flowers alive” after they have been cut hence this collection isn’t a series of still lifes. There is no “stilling” of life here. The narrative is one of nature that is very much alive. There is a lightness to each composition, with only two types of plant or flower in each. We love nature and we wanted these plants and flowers to be the focus.

Boucheron, Composition N° 3: Cyclamen, Oat, Caterpillar, Butterfly. Nearly 700 rose-cut diamonds are set in the white gold petals of the cyclamen. The oat stalk is made of black-coated titanium, sculpted into spikelets set with diamonds. The caterpillar is made of white gold set with diamonds and black spinels. Its hairs are imitated by the fibres of a brush and its body is articulated. The butterfly’s wings are made of white gold, encrusted with diamonds and enhanced with black lacquer. The white gold vase is set with diamonds.

Surely it’s the person who wears them who brings these jewels to life?

I think of jewellery as already being alive. When I look at the magnolia necklace, which appears to be growing on someone’s shoulder, I don’t see a cut flower, I see life. The body is secondary. Humans come after nature, which is the subject of this collection. It’s a matter of priorities. Nature or human, the choice is clear! [laughs]

Do you think clients will even dare wear these pieces?

I hate to think of jewellery locked in a safe, after all those hours spent making it. Of course the client can leave the composition as it is, then one day, should she wish, pick the tulip or the eucalyptus and wear them as brooches.

Can we consider these six compositions as artworks?

We often distinguish between art and craft, whereas I love both and would rather not choose one over the other. Describing them as artworks diminishes the role of the artisan, when I’m extremely proud of the craftsmanship that went into this collection. Let’s say it’s hybrid, somewhere between one and the other.

Boucheron, Composition N° 3: Iris, Wisteria, Stag Beetle. The iris offers different shades of black with matte finishes and shiny stripes. Diamonds set in white gold outline the surface and contours of the flower. To ensure that the wisteria is both light and sturdy, the craftsmen combined ceramic, titanium and aluminium. The body of the beetle is sculpted from titanium with white gold bands and pavé diamonds. The vase is made of aluminium and titanium and set with black spinels.

On the subject of craftsmanship, each of these jewels required vast amounts of research. Is there one that was particularly complex to make?

Possibly the large thistle. We had to find the right person to make it and that one person lives in the United States. This flower is a tour de force as well as a bridge between innovation and artisanship. I gave the ateliers an almost impossible task. I showed them a thistle that I had in my hand and asked them to recreate it in a hyper realistic way, with all the fine detail of the actual flower, except it mustn’t prick and it had to be set with diamonds. They managed to track down a former MIT researcher who is the only person in the world capable of 3D printing with bio-sourced plant-based resin. Every one of the six hundred diamonds is set in a bezel formed by two prongs with a little ring at the end. Julie, one of our gem-setters, came up with the idea of threading the diamonds one by one onto fishing line and literally sewing them to the thistle’s spikes. The large thistle can be worn as a brooch or on a long cord as a crossbody necklace, while the smaller one can be detached from the stem and mounted on a ring.

Boucheron, Tulip brooch, Composition N° 6. The tulip is made of borosilicate glass. Boucheron’s craftsmen shaped the glass by hand and stretched it until it was 2 millimetres thick.

Might you use this technique again, in the future?

Whenever we work on a Carte Blanche collection we learn something, we learn to work with new materials and techniques. They become a kind of toolbox that enables us to push further and overcome a maximum of restrictions, such as not having to scale down a design. We always find a metal, a material or a technique that means we can give a piece the size we intended it to have.

Which other unconventional materials did you use?

For the six hundred or so tufts of hair on the little caterpillar, my personal favourite, in Composition N° 4, we used the bristles from Japanese paintbrushes which I had sent over. We used borosilicate glass for the tulip in Composition N° 6. This is the same highly resistant glass used to make test tubes for physics and chemistry labs. I adore rock crystal and use it whenever I can, but for this collection the finished piece would have been thicker and less realistic. With borosilicate glass you can respect the actual volume of the mount. Before starting a collection, you have to take time to understand what it is you want to achieve then, once that’s clear in your mind, go all out to reach that objective, allowing yourself to use new things as well as ancient techniques to come as close as possible to your dream.

Speaking of dreams, Boucheron CEO Hélène Poulit-Duquesne gives you complete freedom for the aptly named Carte Blanche high jewellery collections that are presented in July. As creative director, how does it feel to be given licence to do anything you please?

It’s a double-edged sword. On the one hand, I can’t think of a more wonderful gift. Without this licence, you can have great ideas but that’s all they’ll ever be, ideas. On the other hand, when you embark on a creative process knowing that you can do absolutely whatever you like, you feel slightly giddy. This is high jewellery, I know I have to get it right yet there is no-one other than me to say whether the idea in my head is the right one or not. Anything is possible. Fortunately, the giddiness soon disappears and I can get down to work. It’s fantastic and at the same time not an easy situation to be in.

Certain pieces are designed to be worn in unusual ways. Is it important to you, this reinventing of how jewellery is worn?

It’s not a question I ask myself. I start by thinking about what I want to do, the message I want to convey, and the collection takes shape from there. I wanted to pay homage to nature and show its impermanence, and I thought it would be interesting not to create jewels straight away but ikebana in a colour gradient. Only afterwards did we consider how they could be worn. Nature isn’t a tool. It’s the finality. The jewellery adapted to this.

Boucheron, Magnolia necklace, Composition N° 2. Craftsmen scanned a real magnolia tree, including its branches, flowers and buds, to create this aluminium piece. A linear pavé of diamonds makes the aluminium petals covered in black ceramic sparkle, while the centre of the white gold flowers is paved with upside-down diamonds. The stick insect is made of white gold adorned with diamonds. The vase is made from a matte black composite material.

Which new ways of wearing emerged from these forms and this symbolism?

The thistle crossbody necklace is one. By clipping a cord to the piece, the larger stem and the flower can be worn across the chest. Then there’s the magnolia branch/necklace that sits on the shoulder, reaching away from the body. Ordinarily, you would never design a jewel like this but because we were inspired by nature, the form itself was the starting point and how it could be worn followed on from there. As for the butterfly, it perches on the shoulder, held in place by a magnetic fastener slipped inside clothes.

Is there one jewel you would consider to be your grail? An impossible creation, whether for its theme, its material or its construction?

I’m always in pursuit of a grail. Looking at what I’ve done at Boucheron in the past, I can see that same intention, how to question the precious, and each of the answers I’ve proposed is a kind of grail: render flowers eternal, immortalise the beauty of water, capture the impermanence of nature. I hope I never reach the ultimate grail so I can keep on searching for it with the same enthusiasm.

Boucheron, close-up of the Eucalyptus branch in borosilicate with diamonds, Composition N° 6.

Is this concern with impermanence part of a philosophy of life?

When I talk about the collection, it’s part of a realisation that we don’t treat nature with the respect it deserves. I see nature vanishing and want to show people how beautiful it is, perhaps with the hope they will then want to protect it. More generally, I find it hard to accept the idea of impermanence. It’s a scary thought yet at the same time it gives value. If we had the certainty that everything will stay as it is for all time, nothing would have any value.

High jewellery addresses a certain clientele, although the collections are posted on social media for everyone to see. Can and should the jewellery industry play a part in spreading environmental messages?

Jewellery is my medium and this is the message I wanted to convey with this collection. I communicate through jewellery. Maybe that’s not what people expect from me but it doesn’t matter, I do it anyway. I’ve no idea what echo this collection might have but I do feel it’s an important message to communicate.

Looking now at all these compositions, what do you feel?

I spent a long time working on this collection. I know it by heart and even then I never get tired of looking at it. It’s addictive. I find it soothing. The first time I saw the finished pieces, I felt a wave of relief. They existed. We’d done it. It makes me very proud to have achieved this level of craftsmanship. The jewellers really impressed me. I get goosebumps every time I see it. It hits an emotional spot. It’s like Romantic poetry, in the proper sense. Not sentimental but with a sombre beauty.

Boucheron, close-up of the Thistle, Composition N° 5

Sombre indeed. We can barely make out the final composition in this dark room.

Because it’s entirely black. It represents disappearance, the end of impermanence. It’s a composition of sweet peas, a poppy and a butterfly. The inside of the poppy is coated with Vantablack®, a substance that absorbs 99.6% of light. Light becomes lost, leaving only black. The jewellers fashioned a magnificent poppy whose volumes are absorbed, erased by Vantablack®. The tips of its pistils are set with micro-diamonds, like stars around a black hole before it all disappears, before the end of the story.

Impermanence isn’t about wilting and fading, then, it’s about disappearance?

More than that. It’s a fact. We must care for nature because it can disappear, although it will always reappear. I think of it as something positive.

So you see this collection as a message of hope?

Yes. For me, stars mean happiness…