When Ann Korman, the founder and designer of ARK Fine Jewelry in Los Angeles, meditates, she does so using an unusual medium.
“For my morning meditations, I do watercolors,” Korman, a graduate of Cornell University, where she majored in painting, tells JCK. “They end up kind of looking like dreamy landscapes. I showed at galleries years ago, but painting became more of a personal meditation for me. The way I make jewelry is more like I paint.”
With her newest collection, Aphrodite’s Aurora—which draws inspiration from Botticelli’s Birth of Venus painting as well as the aurora borealis (aka the northern lights)—Korman makes the link between her training as a painter and her work as a contemporary jeweler more explicit than ever. For example, she devised a new colorway for the collection that she dubbed Feather.
“It refers to the watercolors and the feathering of the paint and how it moves on the paper,” she says. “We also wanted to do a lighter colorway, so we added more diamonds.”
One of the signature Aphrodite’s Aurora pieces is the Wishing Well pendant ($32,950) pictured at top, featuring a seafoam green tourmaline surrounded by diamonds, tanzanites, peridots, and purple, blue, pink, and yellow sapphires.
“We used some peridot throughout the collection for that light spring color,” Korman says. “The colors are supposed to look like they all flow together and also reference the spiritual idea of the wishing well, like you’re looking into a well with water moving in a circle.”
Other pieces in the 18k gold line—including hoops, a cuff bracelet, and chunky gold rings with the same shield silhouette as the pendant—hold a similarly enchanting mix of stones.
“Two rings both have the seafoam green carved tourmaline,” Korman says. “The energy of tourmaline is for joy. Even though the collection is shield-shaped for protection, jewelry to me is for joy.”
Like much of Korman’s past work, Aphrodite’s Aurora—which she showed at Bergdorf Goodman during the month of May—represents a fusion of color theory and symbolism, with a heavy emphasis on her fine art training.
“I have sought to capture the essence of my craft in each piece by infusing them with the same painterly quality that defines my watercolor creations,” she says. “Each stroke of color and meticulous detail is intentionally crafted to evoke the same emotions and sensations as one experiences when gazing upon a vibrant canvas.”
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