Forget baubles, bangles and beads. Hiroko Suzuki designs pieces of jewelry that take the craft to a new level of glamorous extravagance.
Since she works in Akasaka in central Tokyo, we meet for tea at the Akasaka Prince Hotel. Her husband, Kiyoshi Suzuki, is alongside for moral support. Friend Kenny Okutani, director of sales Far East for the Plaza Hotel in New York, has dropped in to interpret as need be.
Hiroko is tiny, with hands so delicate you fear for their safety in life's daily grind. Also I swear you could put both hands around her waist. Yet despite her diminutive size, she carries her own work with aplomb: large South Sea pearls on her ears, a diamond ring on her pinkie trailing strings of even smaller gems, and a slender watch encrusted with glitter that just screams expensive. Clearly she is no nitty-gritty artisan.