STYLE Edit: Inside jeweller Cindy Chao’s new Black Label Masterpieces collection, including the splendid Caribbean Summer brooch set with a four-carat Muzo green emerald, on display at its new gallery in Taipei

Nov 4 , 2022

Cindy Chao’s Black Label Masterpiece VIII – the Caribbean Summer brooch. Photos: Cindy Chao

Cindy Chao’s Black Label Masterpieces collection shows some of the luxury jeweller’s most intricate pieces including the Caribbean Summer brooch, aka Number VIII

The piece will be on display at the brand’s new gallery at Regent Taipei, along with the nature-inspired Spring Cardamom brooch and the Morning Dew earrings

Since its launch in 2004, Cindy Chao has quickly become well-known among lovers of unique jewellery – as a name synonymous with extraordinary pieces that combine exquisite aesthetics and startling photorealistic detail, with a mastery of a range of techniques from the history of haute joaillerie.

In particular, the luxury jeweller’s Black Label Masterpieces collection has won renown for its stunningly intricate, sculptural evocations of natural forms, encrusted with sparkling jewels and almost hyperreal in its verisimilitude. The latest of those creations, the Caribbean Summer brooch, continues that tradition, bringing the vibrant energy and beauty of the sun-kissed region to life in the form of a bejewelled leaf. It’s accompanied by a new venture for the jeweller – the launch of a Taipei gallery where the brooch and other Cindy Chao creations, including several more Black Label Masterpieces, will be displayed.

The Caribbean Summer brooch – Black Label Masterpiece VIII – with its Muzo green emerald, white diamonds and horn rib.

Number VIII in the series, the Caribbean Summer brooch takes the form of a musa – or banana – leaf, a very common sight in the region. It renders the leaf with stunning fidelity, depicting it as if being blown in the tropical breeze. This is an effect achieved with the aid of rarefied jewellery-making techniques, including some for which Cindy Chao is famed and others that the brand used for the first time.

The banana leaf, ready for the thousands of gems that will ornament it.

The former includes the lost wax technique, in which a wax sculpture is deployed to cast metal, and is here used to create the sculptural, curvilinear form of the leaf. Wax forging was also employed to make the brooch, in which titanium is shaped using an iron hammer. In a first for the brand, the piece was also made using the channel-setting technique, where gemstones are fixed between rows of metal rather than attached to claws or prongs.

At the heart of the Caribbean Summer brooch is a Muzo green emerald, among the most sought after of the precious green sparklers, that hails from Colombia and weighs in at nearly four carats. Bringing the leaf to life is a collection of more than 2,000 white diamonds, more than 375 of them Asscher-cut, that each weigh between 0.08 and 0.35 carats. The midrib, meanwhile, is made of horn, polished to an amber colour.

Cindy Chao Black Label Masterpiece X – the Spring Cardamom brooch.

The Caribbean Summer brooch will be one of many Cindy Chao masterpieces on display at the jeweller’s new gallery, located in the luxurious Regent Taipei hotel. It features four free-standing showcases where five Black Label Masterpieces are on display, together with delightful touches such as a showcase embedded in a mirror wall featuring Cindy Chao creations that appear to float in space.