The Antwerp-based jeweler started designing at five years old, and she’s never looked back.
What are your sources of inspiration?
Lines, curves, gardens, architecture, patterns and anything botanical. I am also inspired by textiles, colors, animals, there is so much!
How did your time in India contribute to your creative process?
It certainly confirmed a taste for volume, colors and yellow gold, but most importantly it allowed me to meet and see different types of people and what they like to wear. In Belgium there was a certain style of rings that people were all wearing when I started, so it was very interesting to see that this taste was not the world’s taste. Traveling is most important to give you energy and open your mind, but purely for ideas there’s plenty of inspiration down your street and in books.
Who do you have in mind when you design?
I don’t really function with the “muse” system. My jewelry starts itself as a sculpture or design adapted to the future owner. Most of my work is commissioned so I have to take it from my world to someone else’s. Some people impress me with their tastes and character, but styles that I admire can be very different from one to another.
How does being based in Antwerp affect your creations?
It completely affects the efficiency. We are based in the diamond district, it is like a village where everybody works for the jewelry industry. So everybody goes up and down the buildings, either to get a diamond, bring a ring to the polisher or go see some sapphire selection that a client asked for about just 30 minutes before. We are all so close, it makes it very easy. Before this workshop, I was based in Brussels where things are more chaotic and slow. I got tired of the unreliability and moved the whole atelier to Antwerp.
Who are your clients?
I started making jewelry at five, and sold my first piece at 16. It was with wire and beads. Then I kept making and selling wooden jewelry during my studies and by the time I was ready to make diamond jewelry, at 27 years old, people knew I was the “jewelry girl,” and orders came pretty fast. It started all from word of mouth, now Instagram has helped me make it grow amazingly well. We are now a small team and orders come from Belgium, different parts of Europe, and it has also started with the US since last year.
Most of my work is commissioned so I have to take it from my world to someone else’s
How do you source your materials?
From Antwerp, of course, and as I specialize in unusual colored stones as well, I have to have them sent over from Asia. The stone selection is a little conventional in Antwerp, you can find all the diamonds, rubies, emeralds and sapphires you want, but if you want some big mint-colored tourmaline or bicolor chrysoberyl, you have to look further.
What are your most iconic pieces?
I think of a few designs in particular, where you can clearly see the botanical influence. Gingko, vines and fig leaves, torsades and ropes. Some of them started as orders then really grew into my work and general style.
What is your latest collection about?
I wish I had the time to make a complete collection. Orders take all of the workshop’s capacity, but in parallel I ask freelance goldsmith to make new pieces that are not orders. We are working on insects, new plants and dahlia flowers right now. It is very exciting and the work seen take some new directions.
What is your most cherished personal item of jewelry?
I had a plastic bracelet when I was four or five, with Care Bears stickers. Long lost but very well-remembered. Now, it’s my engagement ring, it’s a gift.
Main image: Coralie van Caloen. (Coralie van Caloen)
