The love of jewellery design can be acquired or inborn. For 57-year-old Pirchia Biran it is the latter, with her love of the art impelling her to move away from purely academic pursuits. Despite a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Pirchia refused to be straitjacketed into a corporate career. She founded the family business, Bi Paz Diamonds, along with her father at St. Rehovot in Israel. She is a boutique jeweller now who combines assorted jewels, precious and semi-precious stones into masterpieces of creativity.

While Pirchia specializes in the intricacies of classical design, she also understands the minimalistic lines of contemporary jewellery and has woven both old and new techniques into her unique craftsmanship. For the last 32 years Pirchia has lived and loved her art which is now a part of her being.

Quizzed for the ‘Diamond World’, she delved into her bygone life, likes and the artistic layout for fulfilling the same. Read on

Q : Why did you, with a degree in business administration, turn to jewellery?

A: One does not have to be restricted to being an intellectual. Developing oneself in every field, including the intellectual, is a necessity.

As a young girl, I dealt with all sorts of handmade crafts. I designed and created jewels made from alpaca and nickel silver threads. As a teenager, I collected dry seeds from the trees in my neighborhood, near the Weizmann Institute of Science (it is located in Rechovot, Israel). Our neighbor would drill holes in them and I would integrate and interweave them with silver threads. My bedroom at home was filled with jewels I had created, and at times I couldn’t recreate/reproduce a matching pair for the earrings I had made.

After I qualified from high school, like every other Israeli girl, I enlisted in the army for compulsory service of a couple of years. When this stint ended, as an only daughter with two brothers, I had to continue studying because that’s what a ‘good girl’ was expected to do! I chose Business Administration in default, but I never let go of my childhood dream to set up a business with my father. I worked in a Nuclear Research Centre for four years and there I came upon the brilliant Israeli invention of laser bombarded diamond and fell in love with it.

I studied diamond sorting, gemmology, diamond setting, and pearl interweaving. I also started designing jewels again, but this time, seriously. My father didn’t allow me to pursue physical work and work with my hands because he didn’t want me to damage my ‘delicate limbs’; thus designing which was ‘my trait’ and a part of me since childhood, became the main part of my business.

Q. : For how long have you been designing jewellery?

A.: For the last 32 years I have been living my work, loving and breathing it, and it has been filling a huge part of my being.

Q.: Being such a passionate devoted designer, have you received any specialized training in gemmology or jewellery design?

A.: Well, yes, I have received extensive training in all the fields of my profession. I have studied diamond sorting, gemmology, diamond setting, and pearl interweaving.

Q.: Since your company, ‘Bi Paz Diamonds & Jewelry’ is not a mass producer of jewellery, would you call yourself a Boutique Jeweller?

A.: No, I don’t like labelling myself but I am definitely proud of my accomplishments and of the jewels that ‘Bi Paz’ has produced, and indeed, they all carry the same distinctive ‘Bi Paz’ characteristics, unique setting styles.

Q.: Do you specialize in any particular stones?

A.: As a gemmologist I deal with all gemstones. I love working with diamonds and in the last 32 years I have also been creating with colored diamonds.

A.: The classic line in designing our different gold jewellery is characterized by what was in the past, what is at present, and what will be in the future. Meaning that a jewel is supposed to be contemporary and yet something that passes on from generation to generation. It should always fit today’s spirits, be classic and yet it shouldn’t be temporary.

Q.: Since you also design contemporary jewellery, have you had any training in this line ?

A.: During my years in the jewellery business, the process of development and progress have reached our regions, and indeed things have changed.

Now a model is constructed in a different manner from the way it was done earlier and the use of modern means as working aids is a necessity. Our designing and manufacturing process is going through a constant updating change.

Q.: Why don’t you use synthetic diamonds or other synthetic products ? Synthetics may well be the jewels of the future.

A.: Perhaps the jewel of the future may indeed be a synthetic one, as essential raw materials, such as diamonds, gold and silver are diminishing.

Nevertheless, assumption is that it will take a few generations before we feel acute shortage, therefore people will continue to demand the real thing.

Q.: Have you won any awards for jewellery design?

A.: I have never participated in a design competition. I have turned my beloved hobby into my profession and that makes me a happy and contented person. I am a woman of action and not of talk, My strongest characteristic is in working and connecting with the client. Once we ‘click’ with the client, creation starts.

Q.: What kind of craftsmanship do you employ in your designs?

A.: The artistic side of designing is the ability to fathom the client’s mind and execute the task to his complete and full satisfaction. The ability to understand the other person is indeed an art. It is very easy to create your own ideas, concepts but to integrate your personal temperament and connect with a client whom you don’t know, and fulfill his or her life’s dream (by creating the masterpiece he desires), is an art in itself.