Enter the dragon

Guy Bedarida wasn’t looking for a job when fellow jeweler John Hardy called on him 12 years ago.

Bedarida, who had spent his career designing jewelry for royalty and high-end collectors, had found his dream job as head designer for Van Cleef & Arpels and had no intention of leaving, but his curiosity was piqued by Hardy’s offer to see the work being done at his Bali compound.

It was about as far from his work in New York and Paris as he could get in terms of geography and methods. “What I found at that point was a culture of Bali artisans,” Bedarida said. “Bali had eight kingdoms and each had a king, so each king was competing with each other to have the most beautiful palace, the most beautiful wife and most beautiful jewels.”

That left a culture of real craftsmanship, he said, and like Hardy before him, he felt compelled to help preserve that artistic legacy.

“I came home, resigned from Van Cleef & Arpels and moved to Bali.”

Today, Bedarida is the head designer and creative director for John Hardy Group, which he purchased with a partner in 2007. He was at Neiman Marcus earlier this month to show his latest work, including his timely Naga Collection hailing the incoming Year of the Dragon.

Unlike the fire-breathing, destructive dragons of Western lore, Bedarida learned the people of Bali view the naga as a protector, watching over the land and its people from the island’s mountaintops.

Bedarida’s designs reflect this talismanic power. On some of his most dramatic semiprecious and precious stone-encrusted bracelets, the dragon’s mouth opens on a hinge and can be worn to face outward to offer the wearer protection from the outside world. The head of the dragon can also be worn to face the wearer who wants to draw love and spirituality into his or her life.

In another lariat, the dragon’s mouth opens to release its treasure of a pearl ring. In Balinese lore, according to Bedarida, the naga loves the pearl so much that it dives into the ocean at night to sleep with it. In the morning the dragon returns to the mountaintops, water dripping from its scales to keep the landscape lush and green.

BEYOND THE creative aspects of his work, Bedarida was taken by Hardy’s progressive ideas and lifestyle. The compound that houses the John Hardy workshops and artisans covers 36 acres in Ubud. It’s the equivalent of a village that is also home to livestock and vast organic gardens that feed all 650 of the company’s employees.

It wasn’t a stretch for Bedarida to think organically. He spent some time growing up in Tuscany, where his parents maintained an organic garden.

“Good food leads to happy people, and happy people create beautiful jewelry,” said Bedarida, who also views the company as a steward of the land, planting bamboo for each piece from his bamboo collection sold.

“Brands like our brand have a great responsibility to bring this message to people.”

He’s optimistic that businesses will one day take a more enlightened approach to caring for all their employees, not just their CEOs and management teams.

“It can’t continue the way it has,” he said.