I was influenced by the pictorial universe of Georgia O’Keeffe, contemporary artists such as Kader Attia and Nils Udo, and photographers like Francesca Woodman and Bernard Plossu. My journey has been full of wonderous meanders, but it is film that has most influenced my work, in particular movies by Andrei Tarkovski. I have directed short films which are like sensitive portraits, using an impressionist style of writing. I came to jewellery quite unexpectedly, even though I was initiated to the beauty of stones at a very early age thanks to my father who shaped and cut them. I have long had a sensitivity to crafts, yet jewellery came late in my creative process, leading me to establish a genuine affinity with the mineral world. One summer evening, while working in my father’s workshop, I made a necklace with beads that were lying around at the bottom of a drawer, end-of-line beads that he no longer required. With these neglected stones that I wished to revive, I produced a first collection of ten or so necklaces, each of them a unique piece. This is how I came to create jewellery, and the mineral element has become an integral part of my artistic production. Minerals evoke images of ochre earth and the pigments from finely ground earth or semi-precious stones. These pigments of mineral origin were used in ancient Egypt, in Greek and Roman murals, in medieval illumination, in icon painting, Chinese landscape painting, often monochrome…
The deep blue of the lapis lazuli, the luminous green of the malachite, the intense blue of the azurite, the golden yellow of the orpiment… from East to West, from Antiquity to the Renaissance, paintings vibrate with these mineral pigments. Stones are also for me an infinite source of inspiration when drawing, like the complex and geometrical figures of tourmaline slices with their vivid and expressive colours, or septaria nodules enamelled with dark patterns similar to an unknown alphabet. Drawing stones puts me in a particular state of mind. I feel completely immersed in the moment, tracing the line, feeling the brush take on ink and the free and intuitive movement of the hand. The stones that accompany me and the connection I have with them allow for a deep communion with nature. We ourselves are made of minerals, our body is made of silica and being aware of this can only invite us to develop a shamanistic relationship with beings and the world.
Opals – Limited and numbered photographic prints, 1 to 5.
These photographs were taken as part of my personal work, they are on display in my store and available for sale, please contact me for further details.
My father’s lapidary workshop
My father was a collector of minerals and fossils. His learned interest in mineralogy and his independent temperament led him to make it his profession.
Daniel, my father, self-trained in polishing and shaping stones, while working as a draughtsman in an architect’s practice. He gradually acquired the skills of a lapidary and gained a reputation in the field by participating in mineralogical exhibitions, before leaving the firm where he was employed and the world of architecture. For a long time, he lived an almost nomadic life, marked by trips abroad where he negotiated gems, and punctuated on his return by studio work and sales at specialised fairs in various regions of France and Belgium. At one point in his career, he moved into an old sawmill in the Vosges mountains, which he restored and converted into a stone, mineral and jewellery store. The sales area was adjacent to his lapidary workshop, which opened onto a courtyard upstream from the basin that once fed the haut-fer, alongside the wooden building.
His machines overflowed onto the grounds where curious bystanders could stroll around and observe the craftsman’s movements. It was a jumble of sieves strewn on the ground, piled up blocks of stone accompanied by the regular hum of the revolving vibrating plates that gently and gradually polish the stones. Occasionally, the strident sound of the circular saw would rise up in a ballet of smooth, controlled movements. His business spread throughout the Rhineland region and beyond. This unusual place, surrounded by a dense and humid nature, attracted passionate collectors, lovers of minerals and natural stone jewellery, and passionate amateurs wishing to fill their personal cabinets of curiosities.
It was here I made my first jewellery, in this inspiring place, with the song of the river below, the misty red soil, the thickness of the forest on the surrounding mountainside.
