The creative history of QITTERI begins with this idea to devise a new world of colours and subtle lights, by assembling and bringing together different geometries, playing with diffraction and the directions of emitted light.
To make this idea reality, QITTERI approached Michel Tortel - an architect by training, a designer specialising in light, an engineering enthusiast with solid jewellery know-how.
His particular experience has enabled him to respond to this creative challenge as an alchemist of light.
The fruit of his research opens up new aesthetic territories, combining shapes and new combinations of rare gems, in terms of both colour and brilliance.
The architect
Throughout his career as a designer, Michel Tortel has always designed jewellery - experimenting, looking for new combinations, making models. He has worked with experts in the field to develop his concepts, have prototypes made and supply a select few clients.
Over the years, he has developed his knowledge of gemmology to better understand the secrets of mineral light. His apprenticeship in jewellery design has been forged through creative encounters with craftsmen, helping him to understand and then master the techniques, tools and secrets of the workshop.
Imaginative, delicate and technical at the same time, his protean perspective and his offbeat vision have enabled him to produce the astonishing QITTERI collections, combining traditional know-how with innovation.
Subtle work of detail and proportion - where a just few tenths of a millimetre can elevate a piece from the merely beautiful to the magnificent.
Expertise
We carry out the entire jewellery design process as an integrated whole - from preliminary drawings, through 3D design and validation prototyping, to manufacturing in our workshops.
We have had to overcome many technical challenges in developing, crafting and setting our jewellery. Some of the solutions we found are real technical feats, highlighting the traditional skills of master jewellers.
Our pieces are entirely handmade in France and Italy, by exceptional and prestigious craftsmen. The gold we use comes mainly from the recycling of old pieces or from remelting, thus limiting our ecological footprint.
Approach
With a strong idea, keeping things simple can be a challenge.
We have not sought originality at all costs – rather, the most direct emotional result, which amazes, delicately thrills, and best presents the beauty of these unusual combinations.
Unions of fire and colour, vibrating in unison, like perfect musical chords.
Values
Creating something lasting, to be passed on for eternity.
Sculpting light at a human scale,
Proposing new colour harmonies.
Presenting rare stones with incredible colours.
Offering perfectly-proportioned jewellery which is easy to wear, sober, timeless and iconic.
Origins
Humans have always been fascinated by gems and precious stones. Many civilisations attribute special properties to them, vibrations tuning into the harmonies of mind and body.
The oldest body ornaments were made over 150,000 years ago. We are all holders of a part of this collective memory. Designing this collection was also a working through time, through human history and one of its oldest known forms of artistic expression.
We invite you to travel to the heart of this eternal fascination - to contemplate, hour by hour, the mesmerising spectacle offered by these jewels of the mineral world, the result of gigantic pressures and heat, shaped by billions of years of the convulsions of our earth.