Get creative with these home teaching aids from the jewellery community

As today’s slower pace becomes the new normal, watch and jewellery brands are finding innovative ways for us to fill the gaps, providing us with a host of artistic activities to keep those creative juices flowing (and they double up as a great way to keep the kids occupied).

Hirsh

Hirsh have responded to the growing frustrations of home schooling with meditative colouring sheets. Their digital activity book, updated weekly here, depicts some of their most beautiful jewels. A welcome respite and a chance to include some creativity in the timetable, share the finished result using #homewithhirsh and enjoy seeing what others have been up to.

Chopard

Chopard has drawn on both its culture and history to create fun colouring in sheets that should keep all members of the family entertained, whatever their age. The Happy Diamond clown, originally sketched by Chopard's co-president and artistic director Caroline Scheufele at age 16, is here offered for interpretation, its stomach full of gems with the colour yet to be decided. For those missing jaunts abroad, the colouring sheet dedicated to the Palme d'or award for best film at the Cannes Film Festival may be more up your street. Nodding to Chopard's partnership with the film festival and the haute joaillerie palm designed in 1998, it is the closest we will get at the moment to a stroll down the Croisette. 

Alex Orso

Men's jewellery brand Alex Orso's newly-launched outreach programme began with the intention of supporting the creative freelance community during lockdown. Open Canvas hopes to spotlight emerging talent, with new artists and designers submitting pieces inspired by the jewellery's textures, muted colour palettes or geometric silhouettes, which inspired artist Abigail Bromige-Smith, pictured. The brand are keen to commission creatives, who can get involved on Instagram using the hashtag #OpenCanvas or by messaging the brand's account @alexorsostudio. 

Ressence

Always keen to indulge creativity is avant-garde watch brand Ressence, who are inviting us to colour in one of their newest releases, the Type 1 Slim. This is no idle sketch, however: the brand has joined forces with Sotheby’s to announce the winning design – selected by Ressence founder Benoît Mintiens – will be brought to life as a watch. The special piece will be auctioned on 11 July, with all proceeds going to the Covid-19 Research Programme. To be in with a chance, download your design here and submit to hello@ressence.be 
before 12 May. Sharpen your pencils!

Akansha Sethi

London-based jeweller Akansha Sethi, currently stuck in India due to understandable travel restrictions, is inviting her clients to create their own bespoke scarf rings. The pattern she has created, Sethi advises, should be coloured in with a maximum of four colours which she will then recreate in hand-painted enamel. Send it back, with a note as to whether you would prefer a matt gold, high gloss gold, high gloss silver or antique silver finish, to akansha@akanshasethi.com by 11 May.

Bulgari

The soothing effects of colouring in have never felt so needed, so we were pleased to see Bulgari offering the chance for us to convert their famously colourful jewels into the hues of our choices. Downloadable from the Bulgari website as colouring pages are watches, necklaces and handbags.

Victorinox

One to work on carefully – with parental guidance – Victorinox suggests putting its iconic Swiss army knife to good use with its inspiring series of home tutorials running over the next few weeks. Currently available on the Victorinox Instagram channel, activites cover everything from paper art to gardening. Japanese artist Coco Sato kicked off the series with a virtual origami workshop – requiring only paper, scissors and the knife (the nail file tool handily doubles as a paper scoring tool), Sato leads viewers through 17 careful steps which should, hopefully, leave you with intricate and beautiful fan-shaped displays. Follow the tutorial on YouTube here.