Michael Zobel Biography
In a career that has spanned over three decades, Michael Zobel has consistently produced some of the boldest and most original jewelry of the twentieth and twenty first centuries. A prolific designer, his museum quality jewelry reflects his charismatic personality as well as his cultural roots from Morocco and Europe.
A creative genius with a unique gift for finding dramatic, evocative, and intriguing ways to show off materials in striking new contexts, Michael Zobel passionately pursues his objective of creating extreme, yet wearable, jewelry. For example, in Figure 1 an elliptically shaped rutilated quartz is cut so that the elliptical shape is actually three dimensional. The stone is set in a simple, yet unique, frame of 22k gold and diamonds. The gold, diamonds, and rutilated quartz are then set in oxidized silver, which provides for a functionally strong ring as well as a color contrast to the 22k gold and rutilated quartz.
Fig. 1 Zobel Ring - Rutilated Quartz
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Michael Zobel's innovative pieces incorporating South Sea pearls and Tahitian pearls have won him awards, including first prize in a jewelry design competition entitled "The Secrets of Tahitian Pearls," sponsored by the German Tahiti-Zuchtperlen Werbegemeinschaft. An example of Michael Zobel's work with pearls is depicted in Figure 2. This cuff bracelet begins with a shell, the shape of which inspires the design of the silver, 22k and 24k cuff. The entire cuff seems to organically flow from its focal point - a white south sea pearl.
Fig. 2 Zobel Bracelet - Tahitian Pearl
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Figure 3 depicts a striking example of Michael Zobel's talent for combining precious and semi-precious rough materials in innovative ways, such that the end result is a piece of art that seems as if it is a spontaneous occurrence of natural beauty. This brooch is a combination of 18k gold, fossilized coral, turquoise beads, rough natural diamonds, and one princess cut light yellow diamond.
Fig. 3 Zobel Brooch - Fossilized Coral, Turquoise, and Diamond
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Born in Tangier, Morocco, in 1942 to a German immigrant and a salesman, Michael Zobel was raised in Barcelona, Spain. His parents wanted him to be a salesman, but he wanted to study graphic arts. A compromise resulted in Michael Zobel taking a goldsmith apprenticeship in Pforzheim, Germany, where his natural talent was immediately recognized. Upon completing his apprenticeship in two years, he continued his studies at the Pforzheim School, where he also studied painting and sculpture. Here, Zobel learned the welding techniques which ultimately enabled him to create the complex patterned works that are an integral part of his designs.
Michael Zobel's hallmark is the meticulous and colorful patterned and textured surfaces he creates with pink and yellow gold, silver, platinum, and small diamonds of various colors. His intricate precious metal and diamond backgrounds compliment the idiosyncrasies of the stone he is working with. For example, in Figure 4, he has framed an aquamarine cut by master stone cutter Bernd Munsteiner with an elliptical, asymmetrical setting in gold and platinum. This setting incorporates the lines created by the linear cut of the stone so that the setting for the aquamarine, which is sprinkled with white and fancy blue diamonds, seems to be an organic continuation the stone.
Fig. 4 Zobel Pendant - Aquamarine (Bernd Munsteiner Stone)
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The bracelet in Figure 5 represents the continuation of a tradition of collaboration between the Munsteiner family and Michael Zobel. The rutilated quartz was cut by Tom Munsteiner, the son of Bernd Munsteiner, who has achieved a reputation as an innovative master stone cutter in his own right. Michael Zobel created a cuff for this stone that incorporates the natural design of gold lines found within the stone. This piece is also an example of how Zobel sets diamonds behind another stone.
Fig. 5 Zobel Bracelet - Rutilated Quartz (Tom Munsteiner Stone)
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The organic quality of Michael Zobel's dramatic visual statements is anything but random. Although he uses a bold combination of forms, materials, colors and patterns, he carefully arranges his unlikely combinations of materials so that the final art is harmonious and balanced. In the brooch depicted in Figure 6, for example, a bright red coral is framed in dark mother of pearl on top, and an intricate design in 18k and 22k gold on the bottom. The gold design takes its swirls from both the black mother of pearl and the bright orange coral. Michael Zobel uses black diamonds to further pull the black mother of pearl into the gold frame.
Fig. 6 Brooch - Coral and Mother of Pearl
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Zobel contrasts orange coral beads and turquoise in the dramatic cuff depicted in Figure 7. Zobel outlines the beads and sets the turquoise in 22 carat gold, and there are small diamonds set into the gold outlining the turquoise. The remainder of the cuff is oxidized silver, which provides for a strong setting as well as a dark color to offset the turquoise and coral.
Fig. 7 Bracelet - Turquoise and Coral
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Figure 8 depicts a Zobel brooch that has the look of a painting created with precious materials. The background design is pink gold and platinum. The focus of this piece is a pink conch pearl, however, Zobel set one vertical line of black diamonds strategically into the piece to create the asymmetry which makes this masterpiece so interesting.
Fig. 8 Brooch - Conch Pearl
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Another example of Michael Zobel using his unique talents to showcase a pearl is depicted in Figure 9. The background for this brooch is 22k and 24k gold fused onto silver, using a technique that demonstrates Michael Zobel's imaginative welding style, which creates a textured, smoothly shaded image. Onto this background, Zobel attaches a round rose quartz disc, which cradles a black Tahitian pearl and small brown diamond.
Fig. 9 Zobel Brooch - Tahitian Pearl
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The foregoing examples of Michael Zobel's jewelry not only demonstrate his masterful goldsmith skills, but also a sense of design that is truly inspired. The most striking aspect of Michael Zobel's body of work, however, is the degree to which each individual piece is infused with passion, a quality that other talented jewelry designers often lose in the struggle to stay afloat in today's highly competitive field of jewelry design.
Michael Zobel's Website: www.michaelzobel.com
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