What lead you to begin designing jewelry?
As far I remembered, I have always designed and produced pieces for me and my loved ones.
After 20 years of working as a dental surgeon, my love for jewellery took over; I made the decision to switch careers and become a jeweller. This change didn’t happen overnight, of course. It took five years of all my spare time to master the art of making jewellery.
Tell us about your design style and what makes it unique.
The techniques I use to create and make a jewel varies from one piece to another. For exemple, I can create a jewel entirely by hand, from drawing it to carving and polishing it. But,I can also use the 3D / wax printing / melt method and just finish it. So from a technical perspective,I suppose that, as I use different techniques of creation, the style of our pieces can be very different and that’s probably what makes our jewelry unique.
More importantly, I think our design style is unique because I am not just making jewels. Our pieces have assumed bejewelled forms and peacefully exist on some imaginary planet.
RING LADY OF THE LAKE, LEGENDS COLLECTION - WHITE GOLD 18K, GREEN QUARTZ PRASIOLITE, DEMANTOID GARNETS ©JULIE GENET JOAILLERIE
As a creative and a designer, what inspires you?
I am passionated—and so inspired—by stones. They are impelling my imagination over and over again… What I like the most about them are the amazing optical demonstrations of the laws of physics, when light interacts with the crystal mesh or the inclusion of the stone. Like dichroic or trichroic stones, or stones able to change color, as well as special effects as cat’s eyes, asterism or glimmering.
But my fundamental source of inspiration comes from symbols and legends from middle-age, a middle- age with a touch of magic mixing heroes from mythological tales, cinema, and literature myths. A fantastic world where women are strong and muses have super power.
Each of our collection is a kingdom dwelled by « jewels-characters ». Constellation is a fabulous galaxy full of multi-color meteorites, shining stars and golden heavenly bodies, moves around Vegas, a Tatooine twin planet. Here, game’s universe graphic codes —poker, backgammon, chess— have given life to kings and queens escaped from the Legends kingdom where Aragorn, Ulysses and Bluebeard are fighting for the Lady of the Lake love…
What do you feel is the most important aspect of designing and making jewelry?
As far as I am concerned, I love to have the opportunity to make an ornament, an object which is able of embellishing reality. But also I especially love to touch metal and gems.
What new things (designs, etc.) do you have planned for 2019?
At the moment we are working on two new collections.
Some of our new designs are based on geometrical shapes and we have decided to name that collection « The Elements » referring to Euclid as he is known as the father of Geometry. We are producing jewels right now and I will be able to share soon.
The other collection is called Boum and you can easily see why on our new necklace pic here.
Who are your favorite designers? (not limited to jewelry)
Eva Fehren
Nak Armstrong
Gareth Pugh
Pierre Paulin
René Boivin
René Lalique
What’s your favorite piece you’ve ever created?
No hesitation, I would say the Prince Frog from the Legends Collection.
What would you want customers to know about you and your brand?
That each jewel is part of a story… But also that we are doing our best to make durable jewelry, very easy to wear, soft and light, that you can easily forget except for its beauty…
