SEGRETO CARMELO

Carmelo Segreto obtained his school-leaving certificate in Applied Art – Jewelry Making in 1980. He then went on to refine his designing skills by attending the university faculty of Architecture in Rome, by working with various jewelry making and gem setting workshops and by achieving several certifications in professional gemology. The experience acquired in these contexts gave him the opportunity to experiment innovative jewelry making techniques and then to start his own personal and original production. In 1989 he opened a jewelry making workshop in Cerveteri and in recent years he has started to create bespoke high jewelry for clients both in Italy and abroad. His prevailing activity is the creation of unique jewels, veritable gold sculptures enhanced by precious gemstones selected according to high quality standards and accompanied by gemological certificates.

Over the years, Carmelo Segreto has attended a large number of trade fairs, thereby coming into contact and working with national and international suppliers, while staying constantly informed about competitors and about industry news. His continuing research in the field and his long-standing experience allow him to find the best raw materials at excellent prices. He has also worked with many renowned Italian gem setters, gem cutters, chisellers and wax carvers. Each jewel is painstakingly worked down to the smallest detail to enhance its beauty and meaning to the full.

The “Segreto” collections stem from the in-depth stylistic research through which the designer can express values, experiences and emotions in each piece shaped directly from the raw material and thereby create a balanced harmony of shapes, expression, colours and functions. The jewels are showcased online at www.segretocarmelo.it. The website is divided into sections in which each piece is accompanied by a descriptive panel. In the ‘Classics’ section, the Client can select the jewel and then configure it in terms of size, quality of the raw materials and cost. In the ‘High Jewelry’ section, the Client can find among the pieces displayed or among the sketches the jewel in line with his or her desires and then fill in and send the specific form. Segreto will then contact them to develop the customised design of the jewel. During the design phase, once the processing schedule has been defined, the Client will receive a 3D rendition of the prototype, the various processing phases, and may choose the colour and quality of the gems, the packaging and the explicative content relating to the piece. In the ‘Gemology’ section, the Client will find detailed information about the gems, the meaning behind their nomenclature, scientific data, how to read the scales and parameters of reference that are indispensable when defining the value of a gemstone, and a list of the most acclaimed national and international gemology institutes. Lately, due to the declining availability of some varieties of coloured gems, laboratory treatments for improving their appearance are being used. It may happen that the gems treated in this manner break or become altered to such an extent as to change appearance or colour when exposed to specific reagents. Even diamonds can be treated or reproduced in the lab, and these products have the same chemical and physical traits of natural ones. This means that to distinguish between them it is no longer enough to be expert gemologists. What one needs now are special tools that allow the jeweler to exclude the gems’ artificial origins. This is why each Segreto jewel comes with qualified gemstone analysis and/or certification that can guarantee the origin and quality of the gemstones used.

Carmelo Segreto believes that jewelry making is one of the highest forms of art. The jewel must be conceived and crafted in symbiosis with the client commissioning it. It must not be placed on a pedestal but rather it must glow with the most important values of the person wearing it, because it is linked to the soul, the affections, the emotions, the events and the memories of that person. The act of giving a jewel means to tell and share a fragment of our existence, of our life’s experience with the people we care for the most. The jewel, once infused of these values, will live on in time and in the family’s history.