Jean Schlumberger began working with Tiffany & Co. in the mid-1950s. The self-taught artist had a preoccupation with nature—and this extended beyond the usual flora and fauna to the iridescent shades of the sea. Verdeille riffled through Schlumberger’s sketches, which the late French designer drew on ultra-fine tracing paper, before she dreamt up the unapologetically bold masterpieces that form Blue Book: Out of the Blue.

“We have created a new dreamlike language that animates what [Schlumberger] so brilliantly conceived half a century ago,” says Verdeille. Indeed, the collection’s sea urchin theme playfully epitomises one of our ocean’s most eccentric creatures. An explosive brooch is sculpted from lightweight platinum and 18-karat yellow gold, which is elaborately embellished using fistfuls of hand-carved carnelians that weigh a jaw-dropping 66 carats.

Elsewhere, an intricate pair of earrings are decorated with purplish-pink sapphires set into dramatic structures that twist and turn like coral reefs. Meanwhile, the Sea Anemone pendant envelops the neck in a dusting of diamonds, from which swings a six-carat blue elbaite tourmaline. As if that wasn’t enough, a hefty portion of turquoise is thrown in for good measure.