havarsh Hakobian’s jewels are wearable works of art. Miniature sculptures that accept to be slipped onto a finger, hung around the neck or suspended from earlobes.

The Armenian jewellery designer, who obtained his Master’s in Decorative and Applied Arts in 2005 from the Yerevan Academy of Fine Arts, imagines contemporary pieces in a style that is uniquely his own, yet growing up he had his sights set on a different career. “When I was younger, I practiced Taekwondo and dreamed of turning professional but I also liked to sketch martial artists. That’s when someone suggested I enrol in Fine Arts and I was immediately accepted. I learned applied arts and metalworking, and was introduced to jewellery. Straight away I knew this was where I was meant to be. Each year we had to make a piece for assessment. Mine were a necklace and a tiara. The rector of the university bought both in 2002.”

Shavarsh Hakobian ©Andras Barta

Encouraged by this and his growing passion for jewellery, Shavarsh Hakobian launched his namesake brand in 2007. “I had no financial backers. I had to do a job on the side to earn money to buy gold and be able to work. In fact I started out using less costly metals such as silver and copper,” he confides. This taste for blending materials never went away; his designs incorporate materials, such as wood, leather and textile, that are not generally part of the jewellery canon, which he combines with precious metals and gemstones. “Wood was the first material I had to hand but in all honesty, the material comes second. The idea and the design are what really matter.”

Form first

Sisters Anna and Narine, our interpreters for the interview, explain how he takes inspiration from everything around him. “When we’re travelling, no matter where we are, he never seems to be paying attention but afterwards, when he describes what he saw, we realise he took in countless details that had completely escaped us. We’ll look at a painting or a building and be taken with its beauty, but he’ll be interested in the micro-details, which is how he works, seeking to recreate the form he has in mind down to the smallest detail.”

Thread Butterfly ring ©Shavarsh Hakobian

Indeed, form is the seed from which each piece grows. “I spend days searching for a form then the idea develops and suddenly I see it,” Shavarsh Hakobian explains. Once a design has taken shape in his mind, he gives it substance through wax carving, his preferred technique for materialising his ideas. This phase allows him to improvise and for the design to evolve over the course of the creative process.

Hidden details

His designs are all unique and genderless. Not from a deliberate intention but because this is how each one comes to him. “I create what I create. It’s instinctive,” he says. Precious stones are placed where they aren’t immediately apparent: “I enjoy these hidden elements. If someone is genuinely interested in my jewellery, if they really like it, then they’ll notice them. Sometimes they’re so well hidden it takes a certain amount of observation to spot them. It’s a surprise.”

Shavarsh Hakobian was at the November 2023 and May 2024 editions of GemGenève, where we were immediately drawn to a set of ten rings whose architectural, lyre-inspired shape plays on organic and industrial forms. In May, he presented Threads, an even more conceptual collection that weaves threads and organza ruffles into the structure of the piece.

Threads that connect us

As a student at Yerevan Academy of Fine Arts, Shavarsh Hakobian became interested in art history, particularly historical costumes, and explored ways to incorporate costume-making techniques into his designs: “I love jabots,” he says. “I wanted to create a jabot that was also jewellery.” The threads that connect the different parts of the Threads rings, in white gold and rose gold, are not simply an aesthetic feature. They also have a practical function, to adjust the size of the ring.

Thread Cosmic Triangle ©Shavarsh Hakobian

Here too, Shavarsh Hakobian prefers not to “reveal all”, instead forcing the wearer to search for the details which are not immediately visible, in this instance brilliant-cut diamonds. Threads is also a reference to the interwoven nature of our existence and the bonds between individuals, symbolised across cultures and civilisations by threads. Such is the charmingly utopian nature of Shavarsh Hakobian’s jewellery; using thread as a unifying element to express his belief that everything in the universe is interconnected.