Specialised in cutting opals for more than 110 years in Kirschweiler, the well-known ‘opal village’ located in Germany, Emil Weis Opals is one of the oldest opal-cutting companies in the world, obtaining opal mines in Australia and Mexico, and involving with rough opals in various varieties from many sources. Apart from its dazzling achievements in loose opal business, the company started making jewellery six years ago with distinct German perfectionistic craftsmanship, the influence of the long-standing cutting tradition, and the courage to innovate and improve.
Hong Kong Jewellery talks to the president and owner Jürgen Schütz, and his daughter Tanja Schütz on the old business and the new venture (Photo courtesy: Emil Weis Opals).
HKJM: Hong Kong Jewellery
JS: Jürgen Schütz ; TS: Tanja Schütz
HKJM: Emil Weis used to focus on opal cutting. Why did you venture into jewellery making?
TS: As a gemstone miner and trader, we often think about the jewellery design with our stones. We always have ideas like “this piece would be wonderful in a brooch surrounded by sapphires in the same colour”. So the jewellery line makes our own ideas come true. Our jewellery business is small but important.
HKJM: What is the expertise of Emil Weis’ opal jewellery?
TS: Treasures from our ancestors are the motivation and stimulation for us every single day: respond to the farthest claims, hunt for exploitable mines, choose the best material, try harder to finish the perfect cut, and never be satisfied. We maintain and insist on this high standard in jewellery design and making. From our experience and professional knowledge in opal cutting and polishing, we know how to treat opals and reinforce their beauty, and we dare to put opals at the centre stage of jewellery pieces, set with rubies, sapphires, emeralds and diamonds for the supporting and background effects.
JS: We keep up the high quality by strictly controlling the quantity of our jewellery products. By doing so, our opal jewellery stands for the highest quality and unusual designs in the natural form of opals. We know the story behind every stone, i.e. where and how it was found from which mine, so that we want to create special pieces in use of our tradition, manifesting the explosion of colours from rough opals and the joy of life in the way they deserve.
HKJM: How do the types and colours of opal matter in your jewellery design?
TS: Colour of opal is vital, representing its mood and tone. For this reason, it is the opal who determines the corresponding jewellery design, which is in perfect accordance with our heritage – opal itself, as a variety of gemstone. JS: Let me give you some examples. White opal normally shows frail play of colours that is delicate and feathery. This trait determines the variety’s tender and gentle nature, comparable to birds and dragonflies. Oppositely, black opal is a statement in masculine tone.
HKJM: Why consumers adore your opal jewellery?
TS: Our Italian-German design team produces unique pieces of jewellery with distinct and easily recognisable style in the form of fine art. JS: The gemstone from our company is not just valuable, but a wonderful statement, creating the lust for life and the sparkling mood and atmosphere. Typical jewellery from Emil Weis is the combination of opal with other matching coloured gemstones. It could be a Mexican fire opal surrounded with yellow and red sapphires, or a black opal set with lots of green and blue sapphires, emeralds, and diamonds. Customers like this unconventional matching.
HKJM: What is the present marketing plan for the global market?
JS: Right now we concentrate on the China market. China has a long tradition of and a true love for strong colours. The marketing guideline for our opal jewellery is the Chinese preference.
HKJM: What is your future plan for developing opal jewellery?
JS: Our main business is and will be loose gemstones. Opal jewellery will not be developed in the direction of mass production, even small series are not on the list. Emil Weis’ jewellery means individual and unique pieces of art, created for connoisseurs who really love it. That is our perception of luxury.
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