When David Joseph and Miriam Salat of Bochic exhibited their newest work during the recent Paris Fashion Week (February 28–March 7), a new pair of diamond-studded Bird Cage earrings caught the eye of Russian buyers.

Hand-carved mammoth ivory birds perch inside an oxidized 18k gold cage set with 16.51 cts. t.w. icy rose- and single-cut diamonds—“for a more vintage feel,” explained Joseph during a market visit yesterday.

Though the idea for the design didn’t take Joseph long to develop, carving the birds required 30 days of labor because of the intricacy of the work. Then it took another week to lay out the exact configuration of the stones, and two months of production in a factory in Mauritius.

The inspiration for this design and others in Bochic’s newest collection is Shanghai in the 1930s, “the Paris of the Orient,” Joseph explains. Think starbursts, black and white contrasts, cameos, jet, jade, and animal motifs—all travel-inspired, Far East–meets–Moscow objets d’art picked up at each exotic stop during an imaginary journey on the Trans-Siberian Railway.

This one-of-a-kind pair will retail for $44,700, and was purchased by Podium in Russia. Similar pairs will be made moving forward, but they won’t be duplicates. “We will remake them, but they won’t be the exact same pair,” says Joseph. “The color of the diamonds will be a little different, and the carving of the bird will be different.”

Bird Cage earrings in 18k oxidized gold have 16.51 cts. t.w. icy rose- and single-cut diamonds and carved mammoth ivory birds; $44,700

JCK