Quark Hourglass Earrings by Atelier Minyon

Specs:   18k yellow gold and oxidized silver quark hourglass earrings with .44cts diamonds and .80cts rubies.Atelier Minyon designs will always have a deeper meaning.  Designer Alp Sagnak spends his days mindfully creating pieces that are not only visually enticing but tell a story, too. This piece was inspired by physics – most specifically the quark. As you may well know, we believe everybody has two egos – their naive and wild sides. One day Alp’s friend, Mustafa, a physics PhD, was thinking about the two egos in terms of science. Mustafa explained quarks to Alp, telling him how for every quark there exists an anti-quark. This struck a chord with Alp and he quickly started researching images and representations of quarks. 

What developed was naturally a piece of jewelry. To show the tension between the quark and anti-quark, the naive and the wild, Alp chose an hourglass. He filled the hourglass with one of the oldest elements in existence, and in jewelry – diamonds, in the form of diamond dust. He created a frame for the glass by mimicking the DNA double helix – again a very basic element in the universe.

The two ends of the frame have a pagoda roof design. Since pagodas are often tall structures and always pointed at the top, they easily attract lightning. The lightning represents the energy employed in particle accelerators in the study of particle physics. Once a proton receives energy it causes the quarks within it to move and instantly create the anti-quarks. To symbolize energy being shot Alp outlines the whole structure with two bows (as in bow and arrows).

These elements come together to create the first piece in this line – the quark earrings. The center hourglass spins on an axis within the bows and the whole piece represents the constant push and pull between the two egos we all have inside of us.

As Alp says –

“QUARK<>ANTIQUARK
naive-wild
proper-outlaw
normal-odd
We know you have 2 egos. AND we know your shadow is bigger than you!!!

Dont be afraid of your shadow!!!”

Physics meets Luxury.