Simone Ng’s passion for jewellery making can be traced back to her jeweller grandfather, who favoured the use of coloured gemstones at a time when diamonds were more highly ranked and coveted. This individualistic streak continues to this day with Simone Jewels, the bespoke award-winning jewellery studio that Simone founded more than a decade ago.
Paradiso necklace from the Romantic Hope series, featuring a 7.60ct Santa Maria aquamarine
Today, a certified gemmologist, Simone was named one of Singapore’s Top 10 Designers for three consecutive years since 2015, and a finalist for the Luxury Jewelry Brand Award in 2016. Her one-of-a-kind designs take their forms from history, culture, storytelling, and the collective artistic heritage of mankind. Believing that the lessons of the past can be used to create a better future, she embodies these values in her stunning pieces as well as her brand ethos: Yesterday’s Tale. Today’s Creation. Tomorrow’s Inspiration.
Shakespeare pendant from the Enduring Love series
This year, Simone Jewels’ annual collection, recently launched in July, looks to the same horizons, buoyed by the incomparable words of some of history’s greatest poets. Called Birds in Poetry, the 150-piece collection is inspired by the ornithologically themed verse of William Shakespeare, John Keats, and Percy Bysshe Shelley, and constitutes the brand’s largest collection to date. Fusing coloured gemstones — Simone Jewels’ métier — with exquisite feathery motifs, the collection is grouped into three ‘chapters’ depicting Love, Hope, and Joy.
Simone Ng, Founder and Executive Creative Director of Simone Jewels
“To me, poetry is an expression of the author’s thoughts, ideas, and imagination. The art of poetry transcends values and is held as a respected source of communication among different cultures,” shares Simone.
The principal highlight of the Birds in Poetry collection are miniature pendants, each designed to resemble a book with a relief carving hidden within its pages.
Nightingale pendant from the Romantic Hope series
The first chapter, Enduring Love, evokes an undying love between a mythical bird and an earthbound one as portrayed in the poem The Phoenix and The Turtle Dove by William Shakespeare. The gems here are flame-like to depict Love, comprising red rubies, pink sapphires, and rhodolite garnets.
Skylark pendant from the Purity in Joy series
On the cover of the Shakespeare Pendant, the designer imagines a young Shakespeare in search of love and inspiration, enjoying the gleaming blue waves while gazing at the birds above him. The centre stone is a stunning red African heart-shaped rubellite tourmaline weighing 3.57 carats, representing love. The complementary pieces to the pendant are collectively dubbed Cardinal in Love, in which red gemstones highlight the message of love in Shakespeare’s poem.
Model wearing pieces from the Birds in Poetry collection
The second chapter, Romantic Hope, pays homage to John Keat’s immortal poem, Ode To A Nightingale, with modern and abstract interpretations of the nightingale as a creature that trills without a care in the world, bringing hope for a better day. The Nightingale Pendant imagines how hope materialises when seen in the poet’s mind. The central stone, a Paraiba tourmaline, signifies hope, as does the nightingale sitting free of its cage, created using a special enamel technique. The Paradiso necklace in diamond and white mother of pearl, shaped in a soaring flight of birds and featuring a rare Santa Maria aquamarine weighing 7.60 carats at its centre, is another stunning piece in the Romantic Hope series.
Cuff from the Feather Light series
The delightful bird from Percy Bysshe Shelley’s To A Skylark sits at the heart of the third chapter in the Purity in Joy series. The two skylarks in the Skylark Pendant bask in each other’s company amid nature’s lush beauty, signified by the main gemstone, a striking 3.44ct mint tourmaline. The details on the cover of this book pendant are crafted in enamel, diamonds, and spinels; while inside, a charming relief-style carving expresses Purity in Joy. An array beautiful earrings and rings, collectively named Feather Flight, beautifully round off the chapter. Inspired by the beauty of individual feathers, the pieces feature green gemstones to highlight the message of joy in Shelley’s poem.
“Through this collection, I tried to capture and reinterpret the thoughts of some of the greatest classical poets in history that used birds as an analogy to express the message of love, hope and joy,” explains Ng.
