Find Out Why This Jewelry Designer Favors Rough, Odd
Self-taught Thai-American jewelry designer, Pacharee-Sophie Rogers, worked in advertising and marketing after graduating from NYU before launching her eponymous label Pacharee in 2018, which offers jewels hand-sculpted by Bangkok-based goldsmiths and stone-cutters, each with over 30 years of experience. I discuss with her about making the transition from advertising and marketing to the jewelry craft.
Pacharee Mabe earrings featuring oversized oval-shaped pearls
What subject did you study at university? Did you have any formal training in jewelry design?
I designed by own program at NYU and called my major Master of Arts in cross-cultural communications. It’s a mix between psychology, sociology and communications. I have had one day of jewelry design sketching at the GIA, which happened out of the blue while I was in New York City. Suddenly I just decided I wanted to take this class. It was a full day when I just graduated from NYU, but then I worked in advertising as soon as I got a job offer at digital agency Huge Inc. in New York City. In Southeast Asia, I was with Ogilvy & Mather, and then in London I was with AnalogFolk.
Describe your process of pairing pearls and gemstones on a single piece of jewelry.
This is a tough one. It is a very personal process that I tried to teach my team, and they can’t get it right. I ended up having to do that myself on 80 % of the styles we have.
How and why are the forms of your jewels inspired by nature?
I want people to appreciate the natural state of gemstones and pearls. There is always beauty in originality. The original state of gemstones allows my shoppers to connect with the history and story of the particular jewelry they own.
Tell me about your innovative ways of cutting and presenting precious stones, such as free-form cutting or slicing them to expose their raw, natural beauty.
I work with the family cutter to preserve the corners, texture and colors of the original gemstone.
The Pacheree Floret Cluster Hoops dotted with natural, organic-shaped mini pearls are individually ... [+] created so that each earring of the same pair is slightly different
Concerning unusual techniques that you use in jewelry making, please explain the hand-sculpted techniques and special types of settings that you invented together with your family goldsmiths.
Since the pearls and gemstones we work with don’t have the same shapes, we can’t use the molding process in most designs. This is pretty much like creating abstract art that holds our pieces together. It’s about giving our goldsmiths the freedom to create distinctions across each piece, but also it’s about spending a lot of time with them to the point that they understand your esthetic and your feel for jewelry. The sculpted pattern isn’t something that just happened. It took around 10 to 15 rounds of revision during the wax process until they completely got what I wanted. In the end, I had to let them teach me how to work with wax and sculpted one piece myself to show them how I wanted the pattern. From then on, they quickly absorbed my esthetic and followed that.
You mentioned that it took around 10 to 15 rounds of revision during the wax process until the goldsmiths understood what you wanted. Is that for every piece of jewelry that you make?
That’s for every time we start a key piece in the new collection. And just to add something interesting. You asked me about my background in jewelry. That one day I spent at the GIA I think came from an inner calling. I feel like designing jewelry was something that was subconsciously within me. I’ve just been suppressing it all along. It’s the dilemma of a family business, I guess. My father was a very special man, a gems and pearls wizard and a true genius. I didn’t think I could ever live up to his skills in the gems and pearls world, so that was probably why I kept rejecting the idea of being in the industry. I remember my father paying me to source gemstones and paying me to go with him on selling trips where he met with big shots in the fine jewelry world like Mouawad. These were all a little too much for me.
These Pacharee Mabe Oval Dhin earrings showcase large golden and off-white pearls paired with ... [+] textured gold
Tell me about respecting the nature of the pearls and gems, the beauty of rough, odd-shaped stones, and why you don’t often use faceted gemstones. From where do you source your gold and gemstones, and is sustainability a concern for you?
I think you can connect with the origin and back story of rough stones more. I find faceted gemstones too uniform and their stories get lost; they all look the same. However, we do use them sometimes, but do our own faceted design and introduce them in a way that softens them by creating an ombré of color or even a rainbow color setting. To be honest with you, sustainability is on my radar, but my focus is more on working with ethical people who are passionate and respectful of what they produce. The pearl farms in China and Japan that we work with are brilliant. The gemstones sourced are from my father’s friend, gemologist Richard W. Hughes, who supports all sorts of Thai gem traders, and quite often a lot of them do need help financially, so I really like to be a moving engine helping these wonderful people in the industry.
What subject did you study at university? Did you have any formal training in jewelry design?Describe your process of pairing pearls and gemstones on a single piece of jewelry.How and why are the forms of your jewels inspired by nature?Tell me about your innovative ways of cutting and presenting precious stones, such as free-form cutting or slicing them to expose their raw, natural beauty.Concerning unusual techniques that you use in jewelry making, please explain the hand-sculpted techniques and special types of settings that you invented together with your family goldsmiths.You mentioned that it took around 10 to 15 rounds of revision during the wax process until the goldsmiths understood what you wanted. Is that for every piece of jewelry that you make? Tell me about respecting the nature of the pearls and gems, the beauty of rough, odd-shaped stones, and why you don’t often use faceted gemstones. From where do you source your gold and gemstones, and is sustainability a concern for you?