Holly Tupper’s ‘Cultus Artem’ Jewels Look Chic At Paris Fashion Week

How many independent jewelers who dream of creating fragrance and skincare ranges to complete their collections succeed? Goldsmith/designer/perfumer Holly Tupper is one of those fortunate few. The founder and creative director of Cultus Artem, a San Antonio, Texas-based luxury house, is making an international jewelry splash this Paris Fashion Week as she launches her debut collection of one-of-a-kind and limited edition adornments February 29 through March 5 in the GOLDRUSH jewelry show in Le Marais.

Entitled “Through Paradox”, Tupper’s 18-karat gold collection contains gems she has sourced over the course of three decades living in Asia, London and the U.S., along with more recently purchased gemstones. Glowing with high grade pearls, diamonds, tourmalines in every color of the rainbow and rough-hewn but irresistibly color-drenched gems like cobaltoan calcite, Cultus Artem jewels are made by master artisans. The paradoxes in Tupper’s designs include colored gemstone, or colored mineral cocktail rings that are fringed with tiny pendant beads that move with the wearer. These kinetic jewels are reminiscent of Asian jewelry as well as adornments from ancient Sumer and other great civilizations.

Either one-of-a-kind or made in very limited editions, Cultus Artem 18-karat gold jewels embody a sensual spectrum of textures, hues, forms and concepts that are subtly luxurious in form, concept and materials. In an email interview, the San Antonio, Texas-based Tupper explained, "My jewels are defined by form, color, texture and shape, and by how those elements intersect to create a sculptural whole." They’re also defined by Tupper’s cosmopolitan consciousness. Over the last 35 years, the New York native, art school graduate and goldsmith has lived in Singapore, London and Texas. “In creating Cultus Artem,” she explained, “I wanted to step away from today’s rush towards mass production and disposable possessions and return to luxury created by the alchemy of exquisite raw materials.” The artistry, time and care involved in hand craftsmanship is also of great importance to Tupper.

To this writer, it seems that Cultus Artem jewels reinforce Tupper’s creative vision by embodying earthly treasures and adornments of heirloom quality. As the brand’s website states, “Cultus Artem derives its name from the Latin “cultus,” meaning the practice of adornment, and “artem,” the root word for art, or the conscious arrangement of elements to affect the senses and emotions.” Across all of its collections, but especially in its jewels, Cultus Artem explores traditional, time-intensive techniques as a means to transform rare, precious materials into distinctive sensorial compositions.”

Having studied painting in art school, Tupper has spent years creating art and considering what constitutes the essence of luxury. In the Cultus Artem collection, Tupper has managed to make the essence of art and luxury shape the style, substance and versatility of her jewels. As she explained, “True luxury is time, and true luxury is freedom. My creations are luxurious manifestations of time and space.” Cultus Artem designs are carefully conceived “and frequently take a very long time to complete,” Tupper noted. Her luxurious, smart and “slow” jewels are imbued with Tupper’s vision and artisanship, yet they also bear the intangible cultural heritage and skills of the artisans who make them.

While jewels that are mass-produced by global luxury brands are as easy to find and purchase as McDonald’s hamburgers, Cultus Artem’s one-of-a-kind and limited edition jewels give humans a more fundamental form of luxury, one that involves personal care, technical mastery and rarity. Equally important, the Cultus Artem luxury offering means that each piece, Tupper explained, “is either made for an individual or a small number of individuals.” Tupper also views luxury jewelry as embodying shape-shifting, customizable functions to suit the wearer’s personal and professional lives.

For example, she explained, “My ‘Garden’ earrings are very versatile, they are made of a detachable green tourmaline crystal termination on a pearl anchor. The pearls can be worn alone as a stud earring. Likewise,” she continues, “The wearer can attach the tourmaline to their own stud earring of a cluster of stones, or to a diamond solitaire.” In this way, the wearer can create different earrings from Cultus Artem components. While she’s too modest to say so, Tupper is also creating in the venerable tradition of day-to-night convertible jewelry, also known as “top and drop” jewels.

There are other graceful, kinetic and colorful jewels from Cultus Artem. Take for example its ‘Ndombolo’ ring, which is centered with a pinkish-reddish colbatoan calcite surrounded by a halo of round white diamonds set in 18-karat yellow gold. Orange, pink, purple and yellow sapphire beads are suspended from the setting so that these swing and sway as the wearer moves. This dynamism echoes the Congolese Ndombolo dance, in which the waist and legs move while the upper body remains as still as possible. Another example of Cultus Artem kinetic jewelry artistry involves the ‘Harmony Chimes’ earrings, which are topped with 18-karat gold and emerald crystal slices that frame the ears like precious spring leaves. Featuring dangling pendants formed of emerald beads, white brilliant diamond drops and black diamond beads, these glittering gems rustle with the precious hush of luxury.

It’s worth noting here that unlike most jewelry designers, Tupper has spent the last three decades mastering various aspects of jewelry making in addition to sketching her jewels and carving molds for them. After her first bead stringing studies, undertaken in late 1980s Singapore, Tupper started making jewels out of semiprecious beads, drilled minerals and pearls. Frustrated by the sculptural limitations of as she put it, “working on things with holes, I looked for a place to study goldsmithing.” “In 1990 Singapore, the only place to study was Ed Ng’s School of Jewellery Arts. Ed had created ‘Basic Training’ for young Singaporean heart landers who wanted to go into traditional jewelry manufacturing.” Most of Tupper’s fellow students were teenagers, but she held her own among the youths.

During this basic training, which involved how to hold and operate a jeweler’s saw and how to solder, “I expanded my portfolio of skills by attending classes whenever and wherever I could,” Tupper recalled. “I took classes in the States while on ‘Home Leave’ and later when I was living in London.” The budding jeweler worked hard to develop her métier. As she noted, “these studies allowed me to play and mold and sculpt with rocks, minerals, semi-precious and precious gemstones and more.” As Tupper developed her language, she was also developing the technical skills that enabled her to articulate her artistic language.

Noting that, “My training in disparate countries and workshops has impacted my design path,” Tupper added that in Singapore, she worked within traditional Asian notions of what constituted 'jewelry'. “I designed many bespoke jewels using only high karat gold and precious stones while I lived there.” After she left Asia, Tupper forged radically different artistic paths. “Along with studying and creating contemporary art-craft jewelry using found objects pulled from the trash,” she recounted, “I also used hydraulic presses to imprint texture on to various metals.”

It’s rare to find a luxury jewelry designer with such a firm grasp of jewelry-making technologies and adventurous experience. Along with her technical skills, Tupper’s multi-cultural experience, gift for ergonomic yet kinetic designs and sheer imagination make Cultus Artem jewels one of the more intriguing debuts during Paris Fashion Week.