Baldan

Maria Grazia. Jeweller, born in Udine but settled in Milan, where she started her career as a sales manager at Rubinstein. In 1973 she obtained the license to sell the jewellery of the American firm Kenneth Jay Lane in Italy. Shortly after, she decided to start her own business. She designed jewellery made of galalite and, in 1975, her first pieces in gold and ivory. In 1977, a journey to China was a revelation. While visiting the fair at Canton she discovered the fascination of ancient corals, of imperial jades, and of old coins. She took over a jewellery shop in Sardinia, in Porto Rotondo, and opened her first shop in Milan, in via Fiori Chiari. It was the early 1980s. Her pieces always showed a memory and love of the past, of objects with a story of their own, like an ancient coral or an antique jade. This characterizes her Collections even today, in a combination of old and new, strange and familiar. Her materials and inspiration come from frequent trips to India, Tibet, Afghanistan and China, in a never-ending search for unusual and rare objects and materials, from a 400 B.C. coin to a ruby from the Liao dynasty. The design for the setting comes later, in order to create pieces that are truly unique.