The elephant headdress is hand-sculpted with gold wire just before the setting of white round full cut diamonds and the centerpiece ruby. The linking chains are carefully hand made by joining each silver wire together one by one. Finally, the cufflink is polished again and plated with gold and black rhodium.
Another creation, a Dragon Bangle made of ebony and gold plated silver, takes over six weeks to create and involves five artisans. This piece begins with the selection of the best quality of black ebony wood for carving. From this finest piece of woods, the craftsmen precisely hand-carve each piece into the right shape of bangle and polish it continuously until it is perfectly smooth. Meanwhile, the waxsmith, silversmith and goldsmith have been creating the dragonhead and spacers. Once all pieces are finished, they are threaded together with elastic cords.
At Lotus Arts de Vivre headquarters in Bangkok, over 150 workmen, designers and administrators collaborate to assemble and finish all products. Nourishing craftsmanship is at the heart of the business as Mr. von Bueren concludes, “We preserve craft by being patrons, by supporting, by challenging our workman, by studying old processes, subcontracting them, doing them ourselves and whatever is needed to keep them going.”
