Turning Violence into Beauty: Exquisite Jewellery Made from Demilitarised Weapons for a Cause

Online, December 19, 2012 (Newswire.com) - No two worlds could ever be more disparate than American haute joaillerie and civil unrest in Africa. But esteemed jewellery maker James de Givenchy aims to change that by undertaking a philanthropic design project that could help bridge the gap between the luxurious and making a socio-political statement.

Together with his collaborators at Fonderie 47, a jewellery-making company based in New York, de Givenchy has created a beautiful line crafted by using the destroyed steel from weapons confiscated from war zones in Africa-transforming them into unique accessories worthy of any upscale jewellery store.

Dubbed as the Phoenix Collection, de Givenchy has fused repurposed steel from AK-47s and sustainably sourced, conflict-free diamonds and presented priceless pieces, which includes a ring, bracelet, necklace, and a pair of earrings. One of the star pieces from the line includes an original egg-shaped art object studded with 47 diamonds set upon a pedestal of rose gold.

These pieces will be exclusively sold for more than five to six figures at private events around to discrete moneyed clients, as proceeds from the sales of the collection will go to the Mines Advisory Group, an international humanitarian organizstion from Britain which aims to destroy illegal munitions in Africa, where violent civil wars between several ethnic groups constantly occur.

Every purchase of a Phoenix Collection piece pays for the demolition of a specific number of guns, and the owners of the sold pieces will be given the serial numbers of the wrecked firearms as part of their proof of purchase.

Peter Thum, co-founder of Fonderie 47, had initially approached James de Givenchy in February 2011 to discuss the collaboration, and the jewellery designer ultimately agreed to be on board with the project. Thum, who is a socially-conscious enterepreneur, has expressed his overwhelming approval over de Givenchy's inventive techniques of creating jewellery and has commented on the idea of using raw materials generally associated with brutality to make objects linked to elegance and refinement.

Says Thum: "It seemed pretty obvious that we could use the AK-47 to symbolise the disarmament process and to let people intellectually, emotionally, and binancially become owners of the disarmament process." So far, the Mines Advisory Group have announced that they have successfully disintegrated over 18,000 assault weapons in Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

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