Uncover jewellery-making secrets and techniques at Van Cleef & Arpels’ workshops

The world of jewelry is wealthy in specialist expertise, but the professions behind it are hardly ever seen to these outdoors the business. From stone-setting to sharpening, these storied métiers are seldom introduced as viable profession paths to youthful generations, a disconnect that ‘de mains en mains’, an initiative launched by French jeweller Van Cleef & Arpels in 2021, units out to deal with.

Now in its sixth version, ‘de mains en mains’ opens up the broad combine of jewelry crafts to a wider viewers. Alongside year-long instructional help, the occasion, held in Lyon, invitations college students to have interaction immediately with totally different inventive and technical expertise by way of hands-on workshop periods.

Central to the initiative is the Parcours des Savoir-faire, an immersive workshop designed to demystify the jewellery-making course of. In small teams, college students are guided by craftsmen from the maison’s workshops and launched to the complete sequence concerned in creating a bit of jewelry. Over the course of the expertise, they struggle their hand at six totally different professions – jeweller, stone professional, stone-setter, 3D designer, polisher and enameller – gaining perception into every ability, and even making their very own Alhambra motif, the model’s iconic four-leaf clover design created in 1968. Since its launch, the programme has concerned 310 of the model’s staff and welcomed greater than 1,500 scholar members.

What distinguishes ‘de mains en mains’ is its long-term method to jewelry schooling. All through the varsity yr, a staff of Van Cleef & Arpels consultants go to associate faculties to ship displays embedded into the nationwide curriculum, utilizing jewelry as a lens to discover topics akin to historical past, arithmetic, literature and language. Public-speaking workshops later assist college students articulate what they’ve discovered, culminating in displays delivered to households, lecturers and Van Cleef & Arpels staff.

The annual Lyon occasion additionally opens these worlds to most people. Guests can observe craftspeople collaborating on the creation of a Coccinelles clip, a ladybird-shaped jewel that brings collectively a number of crafts, providing a uncommon, close-up view of setting, sharpening and enamelling. An accompanying exhibition, ‘Les métiers autour d’une création d’exception’, locations historic and up to date jewelry items alongside the Naissance de l’Amour automaton, a excessive jewelry object that includes a Cupid rising from a feathered basket, highlighting the collective effort behind every creation.