New, young Brazilian designers reinvent the concept of jewellery

" With his label Sagrado (meaning ‘sacred’ in Brazil), young designer Danilo Ferreira reinvents the idea of jewellery, becoming a leading light in a new generation of in-vogue Brazilian jewellers with their more simple and more modern creations…includes an interview with Danilo Ferreira.When you think of jewellery made in Brazil, it is often linked to ethnicity, colours, handcrafts and the nature of this immense country. Today, a new wave of young designers dares to try more modern and more original things. This is the case for Danilo Ferreira, who in his Parisian atelier develops his label Sagrado, which means ‘sacred’ in Brazilian, with rough jewellery, based on untreated materials like deer antlers or crystals, glorifying further this link with his country of birth. Includes images of Gizelda Queiroz jewellery, the ateliers of Bia Vieira, jewellers at Dona Coisa, Armajon Biojoais and Danilo Ferreira’s ateliers-apartment. Interview: Danilo Ferrira: Brazil is an extraordinary place; it’s enormous, it’s completely different, each state has its own gastronomy and its own cultural way of developing things, it’s fascinating! I am a young designer and my label is not very well known and my audience is different. It is an audience which loves to give value to something which really has feeling. It is very important for people who wear my things to know what they signify. Otherwise, they have no value. I grew up in a small town, almost a village; there are less than 5000 inhabitants and I was surrounded by this dusty, savage atmosphere so I have certainly kept many memories but beyond this, I try to mix a European side with this memory, which will always be present, I can never hide it. Normally, I chose a material in accordance with the feeling I have with it. All the stones in my collection at the moment are stones found in one place or another that I have visited and that I have travelled to and they are materials that I have a connection with. I think that a product must have energy, otherwise it is dull. Who would want to wear something that has no energy? And so, it is this that I want to put across, something basic and ordinary but also extremely strong. Music free of right/ Bandit & Nikit - 2012.