Chopard sets up a new jewellery atelier

A little over a year ago, the Geneva-based Maison set up a brand-new jewellery atelier uniting all the professions dedicated to creating jewellery.

Located at the heart of the Manufacture in Meyrin, this new area is subdivided into several small workshops, all corresponding to a specific field of competence. The non-exhaustive list of the 45 or so professionals exercising their talents there includes 3D designers, lost wax sculptors and foundry experts, jewellery, gem-cutters, gem-setters and polishers…

For the past two decades, Chopard has been renowned for its High Jewellery creations, often worn by stars at major events such as the Cannes Film Festival, the Golden Globes in Los Angeles, the Venice Film Festival, the British Academy Awards, the Bambi Awards, etc. Right from the start, Chopard co-president and artistic director Caroline Scheufele has been masterfully overseeing the activities of this department. Her creative spirit, her encounters with eminent figures, as well as evolutions in technology, have fostered great diversity in the collections.

How is a jewellery model born?
In the Chopard workshops, everything begins with the expert, patient and inventive hands of the artisans capable of creating exceptional models based on a sketch provided by a future customer, an idea inspired by nature, a set of exceptional gems, or an event-related theme.

Jewellers are accustomed to showing great flexibility in their way of working, and given that many requests are one-of-a-kind, there is no risk of routine setting in. Alongside special orders, the artisans create and craft models enriching the Maison’s regular collections, such as L’Heure du Diamant, Precious Chopard, Animal World as well as The Silk Road.

An encounter between Caroline Scheufele and Rihanna has indeed given rise to a modern collection inspired by the star’s Caribbean origins, evoking the luxuriant gardens of Barbados and the electric carnival atmosphere.

The Red Carpet collection unveiled at each edition of the Cannes Festival is an opportunity for Chopard to push the limits of its High Jewellery expertise while giving incomparable expression to its cherished values. Worn by world-famous actresses as they glide up the red-carpeted of the Palais des Festivals, this jewellery stems as much from Chopard’s exceptional creativity as from its High Jewellery expertise.

With the Green Carpet collection launched at Cannes in 2013, the Maison entered a new stage in its journey to sustainable luxury. Be it gemstones or Fairmined-certified gold, the materials are responsibly sourced and this approach confirms the pioneering role played by the Geneva-based brand in the jewellery world.

Fairmined certification
Since 2013, Chopard has introduced Fairmined-certified gold into its collections. The Maison was the first luxury watch and jewellery firm to commit to supporting mining communities so as to assist them in earning this certification. It thereby contributes to training, social well-being and environmental protection. Production from these mines is unfortunately insufficient to cover the production of all Chopard’s watch and jewellery models. For the time being, only some of them bear this label, such as the Ice Cube jewellery and Green Carpet High Jewellery collections, as well as the Grand Complication models in the L.U.C watch collection.

In-house gold smelting
Within the world of watch and jewellery manufacturers, Chopard is one of the rare Maisons to have its own in-house gold foundry. Driven by a concern to achieve extreme quality, backed by vertical integration of its production and in order to meet its requirements as rapidly as possible, it makes its own alloys from fine gold ingots. The workshop produces five types of 18-carat gold: a white gold colour, two shades of yellow gold (2N and 3N) and two shades of rose gold (4N and 5N). 18-carat gold is greatly appreciated in jewellery, because unlike 24-carat gold which is too malleable, it offers the best possible balance between robustness, radiance and fine gold content. Ideal for setting precious stones, this alloy is also resistant to wear and to the kind of impacts sustained in everyday wear.

Innovation
For the past few years, Chopard has opted to combine gold with titanium in order to considerable reduce the weight of the necklaces, earrings and bracelets, initially made mostly from gold. This nonetheless calls for considerable expertise. Titanium also offers a huge advantage in that it can be  coloured, thus serving to light up jewellery from within. Around 50 shades are available. Today, 30% of the production of High Jewellery models is made with light metals.

Wax sculpting
While all professions are important within the Chopard jewellery atelier, the wax sculptor plays a particularly notable role. Based on a drawing received from the design studio, or sometimes a stone and a few indications, the sculptor and trained jeweller roughs out a model using a type of plasticine, and then crafts a prototype in wax. This highly malleable material serves to achieve volume effects and provides a short-cut compared with stamping techniques.

After being approved, all the wax prototypes are plaster-cast and then melted. The wax sculpting stage is fundamental, since the model is then used for final production. No flaws are tolerated. Once the shape is cast in gold, the sculptor “cleans” it and draws out the metal. He fine-tunes and carves it with varying degrees of firmness so as to reveal tiny details that could not be sculpted into the overly fragile wax. The creation in the making is then ready for the next stages.

Gemsetting
Gemsetting is another very important skill exercised in the atelier. The models dreamed up by designers take on shape and volume under the jeweller’s nimble fingers, but they truly come to life in the hands of the gemsetter, who skilfully inserts gems into their metal setting so as to adorn jewellery with colour and light. The sole purpose of these artisans is to magnify the beauty of High Jewellery creations. This involves constantly pushing the limits of the profession, inventing new types of setting, placing stones in particularly slim, tiny and inaccessible parts of the jewellery.

The models to be thus “attired” arrive directly from the jeweller’s workbench. According to the original design of the jewellery and the volume they  actually have in their hands, the artisans determine the diameter of the stones they will use and the most appropriate setting technique. In cooperation  with Caroline Scheufele, they also choose the type of gems they will fit. This selection calls for perfect knowledge of stones, including their shades of colour, their radiance as well as their degree of fragility.

Trophies
The Chopard jewellery atelier also creates trophies such as the Palme d’or for the Cannes Film Festival which has not only been revisited by Caroline Scheufele, but is also made from Fairmined-certified gold since 2001. Other trophies are also crafted in response to special commissions, such as those intended for the Caméra d’Or, the Bambi Awards, the Moscow International Film Festival, the French Academy ceremonial sword, Olympic trophies, the Dubai trophy of elegance, the Gazelle Abu Dhabi (opera trophy), etc.

The immaculate light-filled new Chopard jewellery atelier provides all its “dream-makers” with an ideal working area where creativity and ingenuity go hand in hand with serenity and efficiency.

January 18, 2018