Sicis Jewels & Sicis O’Clock: The magical world of micro- and nano-mosaic art

April 2014


Sicis manufactures high-end contemporary collections of jewels and watches, marked by the unique setting of thousands of tesserae in gold, precious gems and micro-mosaics.

Sicis Jewels and Sicis O’Clock collections are all born in Sicis headquarters in Ravenna, Italy, the undisputed world capital of mosaics of all time with eight mosaic sites granted UNESCO World Heritage Site status and the capital of the Western Roman Empire from the 5th to the 6th century AD.

Butterfly ring
Butterfly ring

Micro- and nano-mosaic is one of the most ancient and elaborate techniques in jewelry manufacturing, which got almost lost. Sicis studied micro-mosaic jewels collections of the ‘700 and ‘800 preserved in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg or in the Vatican Museums. This project involved 25 years of historical research leading to the establishment of an atelier for the study of micro-mosaic art.

Gardenia
Gardenia

After years of experiments, expenditure of considerable technological and human resources, the first collection was finally presented in Baselworld, in 2012, and this was only the first step. New jewelry and watches are being launched on a regular basis. Sicis strength is the combination of Italian creativity & knowhow, matching a deep awareness of materials with a desire to experiment.

The decision of reviving this art finds its explanation in history, in the XVIII and XIX century, the highest era of splendour for micromosaic jewelry, worn by Marie Louise of Austria, Caroline and Josephine Bonaparte and many more, in Paris, after their journeys to Italy, the so called Grand Tour. Later, the art was almost lost to the world, until Sicis embraced this challenging project, which resulted in a precious collection of unique, handmade pieces of art featuring figurative decorations such as butterflies, animals and flowers, as well as abstract motives.

Sicis Jewels & Sicis O’Clock precious jewelry and timepieces feature a thousand shades of colour and a threedimensionality that only the expertly crafted art of micro- and nano-mosaics can achieve. Sicis mosaic masters create tiny rods of gold and Venetian enamel, obtained by melting 9 different base colours at 1,200 degrees, producing infinite combinations of colours and shades. It takes the masters dozens of hours to complete a nano-mosaic dial or jewel. They set each nano-tessera, made entirely by hand, in the watch dial individually, following the designs with their naked eye and creating unique and unrepeatable works of art.

Jewels collection especially designed by Massimiliano and Doriana Fuksas
Jewels collection especially designed by Massimiliano and Doriana Fuksas

Part of the interpretation of this precious technique was given to the internationally acclaimed American interior designer Roger Thomas. His designs are characterised by geometric forms which generate anastonishing sense of spatial depth. The history of jewels and of the decorative arts during the fluorescence of micro-mosaics in the Era of the Grand Tour provided his inspiration.

Jewels collection especially designed by Massimiliano and Doriana Fuksas
Jewels collection especially designed by Massimiliano and Doriana Fuksas

Sicis collaboration with the greatest names of architecture and design continues and today, Sicis presents a unique Jewels collection especially designed by Massimiliano and Doriana Fuksas. These art pieces are completely innovative, with charms that dangle like droplets of light, hanging from gold or precious stone bracelets. Then there are the necklaces and bracelets, jewelry of rare quality that range from abstract to figurative and symbolic, conveying age-old emotions in contemporary objects.

www.sicis.com