Science Is a Girl's Best Friend

Kretchmer is famous for perfecting tension settings that suspend jewels with the prong power of 12,000 pounds per square inch. He developed methods to surface-treat gold and metals into colours and invented Polarium -- a permanently magnetized platinum alloy that can playfully attract or repel other magnetized pieces, a step closer to his dream of floating jewelry.

His daughter Claudia, 35, is forging ahead to preserve her father's legacy and continue its progress with new designs.

She recently brought a Kretchmer trunk show to the only B.C. distributor of their work: Oak Bay's Creole Carmichael, a designer who also embraces scientific innovation in her work.

My favourite Kretchmer piece on display incorporated Polarium into a ring locket of sorts. The Inner Secret ring consists of two or three metal bands magnetized together with a personalized message engraved inside.

Kretchmer pieces range from $2,000 to $30,000.

"He wanted to make things that would stand out, be unusual," said Kretchmer. Her father, who had a master of fine arts degree, began tinkering with metals at an early age. His basement experiments led him to study with Italian masters, experiment with Japanese exotic metals and develop a blue gold for Harry Winston.

In the mid-1990s Steven Kretchmer started his own firm with his wife Alma and step-daughter Claudia -- whom he had met in Italy. His patents and designs gained him international recognition, as did his quirky work habits. Kretchmer renovated an 1899 schoolhouse to be the family's home and studio, where a workshop included the traditional goldsmithing setups but also top secret machinery -- some used by NASA. Kretchmer's tension settings have been widely faked but never reproduced in quality. Visitors must sign confidentiality agreements.

Less than a year after Kretchmer's death, his wife died. Claudia was completing her doctoral degree in astrophysics and decided to take over the family business, setting up shop in Scottsdale, Ariz.

"Because of my scientific background it was natural for me," Kretchmer said. She launched her first solo show in 2007 and won a Town and Country Design Award for a pendant that fuses some of Steven Kretchmer's early designs with his daughter's love of astronomy. The result is a stunning platinum and gold jewelled constellation.

"Our stuff is 'out there' but that's what makes it special," said Kretchmer of her line, named one of the top 10 most collectible by Sotheby's.

It was a love of metallurgy that drew Victoria's Carmichael to Steven Kretchmer's work. Carmichael is known as the "Platinum Princess" for her expertise in metal and heat-treatable alloys. In 2002, she was asked for samples of her innovative Jewelry by Imperial Smelting Toronto for a symposium. It was a long way from the brass and silver jewelry she sold in Bastion Square markets almost 20 years ago.

Now Carmichael is embracing another science by using computer-aided design (CAD). The computer design program uses 3-D technology to create lifelike images of jewelry designs and precise dimensions that Carmichael can use in her machinery.

"I still sketch out the design with the customer, then enter it into CAD," said Carmichael, whose 25-year-old son Trent Harris is apprenticing with her. "What you see in the CAD image is so true to what you get it's incredible." Carmichael said the technology allows her to create detailed work, giving her more freedom to explore her signature natural shapes such as swirls and, most recently, cala lilies.

See examples of Kretchmer Designs and Creole Jewelry Design at creole.ca