Drawing, Design for Bangle Bracelets, for Gebrüder Hemmerle

In the late 1980s, Stefan Hemmerle created the first designs for the Harmony Bangle, a bracelet that has since become the signature of the Hemmerle firm. In the Harmony Bangle, the open-ended form, a style of bracelet that can be traced back to ancient times, is distinctly modern. Each end of the bracelet is capped in gems or stones while the rounded forms serve to extend the fluid lines of the bracelet. A hidden closure mechanism embedded within the bracelet enables the seamless form. The Harmony Bangle’s simple, sophisticated silhouette has become the basis of decades of imaginative and seductive contrasts of materials.
This sketch, executed by Hemmerle in 1995, is a striking example of the designer working out the possibilities of the Harmony Bangle’s fluid form when featuring pavé-set gemstones. The drawing depicts the early stages of working out an idea, and the immediacy of Hemmerle’s creative process is on display in the faint, ballpoint pen sketches and the quickly rendered variations of the bracelet.
This drawing is one of four Hemmerle drawings under consideration for acquisition. Together, the group would enhance the museum’s collection of jewelry design drawings.

Drawing, Design for Bangle Bracelets, for Gebrüder Hemmerle; Designed by Stefan Hemmerle (German, b. 1946); Germany; blue and black ball point ink, green, grey and brown waxy medium crayon on off-white wove paper; 30.7 x 22.2 cm (12 1/16 x 8 3/4 in.); Gift of Hemmerle; 2012-23-1