nesa Kovalova’s jewellery possesses qualities of lightness and movement reminiscent of an Alexander Calder Mobile – something the Ukrainian designer doesn’t deny. “A lot of my inspiration comes from contemporary art and the built landscape. I grew up in Donetsk, a heavily industrialised region in eastern Ukraine. I love it when you’re driving through a city at night, and can make out lines and lights blinking in the darkness. I try to convey this in my designs.”

We met Inesa Kovalova in November 2023 at GemGenève, where she was one of the designers showcased by the Strong & Precious Art Foundation, in its mission to promote and present Ukrainian jewellery design to professionals in the industry. Her powerful and graceful creations were impossible to miss yet, as she explained, it was a circuitous route that brought her to Geneva – and informs her work.

Collisio cuff ©Inesa Kovalova

“After finishing high school in my home town of Kramatorsk, I studied architecture in Donetsk, then worked in urban planning, setting out guidelines for land use and urban development, and this comes through in my designs.”

While still a student, Inesa Kovalova found a summer job, through friends, as an assistant at a jewellery store in Kramatorsk, “my first experience in the jewellery world. I learned a lot. I then worked for the same store, this time as a designer, for a year before going back to finish my architecture degree, but carried on designing jewellery as a hobby.”

Inesa Kovalova wears her Suspension earrings. ©Ira Merk

From architecture to jewellery

After a friend showed her a press clipping about the Richemont Creative Academy in Milan, “I sent them my portfolio, just to see what they’d say. The academy takes a maximum of twenty students a year from the entire world – and I was one of them! That’s when I thought maybe jewellery was the thing for me. I studied there for a year, it was fantastic. We had lessons with creative directors from the Richemont group and learned a lot about craftsmanship and specialist skills. It’s thanks to this that I got an internship with the design studio at Van Cleef & Arpels in Paris, where I learned how to make gouaches. After that, I never looked back, never went back to architecture. My heart belonged to jewellery.”

After Milan, she found a job in Moscow: “I was in charge of developing collections for a fast-growing jewellery brand, working closely with the owner who was also the creative director. It was a fantastic experience but the political situation was changing and in 2000 I decided to leave Russia. It took me a while to decide what my next move would be.”

Determined to fill gaps in her knowledge, she took a Master’s in Design at London’s Central Saint Martins. “I was searching for answers to my questions. What is luxury today? What do people want? How do we create modern jewellery? The course at Saint Martins had three pathways: jewellery, ceramics and furniture. I chose jewellery and spent two years researching and developing my first collection under my own name.”

Titanium, nylon and 3D printing

For this debut collection, Inesa Kovalova searched for ways to incorporate new technologies and innovative materials into the context of luxury. “I use selective laser sintering, a 3D printing technique, to create complex structures in nylon and titanium which would be impossible to achieve by hand. For example, one piece has a 3D-printed core, which I’ve enclosed in precious materials using traditional techniques. Another is in 3D-printed nylon with applications of Venetian gold leaf. Each leaf is hand-made by a famous gold beater, Mario Berta Battiloro. I like this symbolic fusion of a contemporary material with one that has been around for centuries. And from there, I started to develop my own style.”

Links brooch ©Inesa Kovalova

Inesa Kovalova now lives and works in the Netherlands, in The Hague, where she creates prototypes for her designs. For the past year she has been focusing on precious metals. Her first commission was for a brooch, for the Strong & Precious Art Foundation. “It’s called Links and is inspired by Ukraine. It symbolises unity between the east and west of the country, between manmade landscapes and natural beauty. The centrestone, a heliodor [a yellow-green variety of beryl], was mined in Ukraine. So it’s a very symbolic piece.”

Her jewellery is made by a workshop in Bangkok, “not for its geographic location but because I knew them from when I worked for other brands and we’ve developed a strong relationship. We understand each other and they’ve been really supportive. I see them as partners more than suppliers.”

Floating lights

When we first met Inesa Kovalova, one design in particular stood out: a pair of imposing yet incredibly lightweight earrings in diamonds and gold, like a geometric figure unfolding in space. “I love statement earrings but I’m always attentive to how much they weigh. Women want to feel free. Your earrings should never tell you when it’s time to leave a party,” she laughs.

Pearl drops earrings ©Inesa Kovalova

She named the earrings Suspension. “I had this image of floating lights which I transposed into a pair of earrings that embody movement and light. They are in gold, titanium and diamonds. I created a structure that supports the stones almost invisibly, forming a dynamic halo of sparkling light. I think of them as earrings to wear at night, when the titanium structure disappears, leaving nothing but floating bands of light. I try to create this impression with all my designs.”

Inesa Kovalova returned to GemGenève in May 2024 with new creations, including her Solar earrings, “inspired by the cyclical nature of life, the recurring pattern of sunrise and sunset, cycles of growth and decline. I wanted to represent this with circles in different diameters, to symbolise the cycles of life. They are made from titanium and gold so they weigh next to nothing, just six grams.”

As we got up to leave, Inesa Kovalova showed us one last piece: a rectangular ring, similar in shape to a princess-cut diamond, in a very different vein to her other “suspended” designs. “It’s a play on light and shadow. Depending on how you view it, one side is in darkness and the other is light. Everything we see is a visual illusion. This ring makes us question how we perceive things. There is always a light side and a dark side, and light always prevails.”