At his London home, Jack du Rose keeps a menagerie of creepy-crawlies that with infinite care and obsessive handwork he uses as muses for the intricate crafting of epic three-dimensional jewellery pieces, a luxurious collection inspired by a book illustrating early designs from the jewelers René Lalique and Tiffany, beautiful dangerous creatures, as well as a collection of rare gems to play with.

The designer, whose previous career included working on Damien Hirst’s infamous diamond skull, put his first eight one-of-a-kind creations on display in a high-profile exhibition, for which we were commissioned to create the title visual of the show. The title “Danger” and the extraordinary sculptures in stones all had an emotional resonance and an almost biblical sense of foreboding. Using real live snakes in an enclosure and supervised by experienced handlers, we crafted our treatment by photographing the specimens moving around, swirling, overlapping to create delicate free-forms. The idea behind the typographic composition was to convey a memento mori feel matching the natural, ornate quality of the unique jewelry.

Shot with Atton Conrad.