We're standing on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France, with a fantastic view of the Eiffel Tower. We'll visit with French jewelry designer Cathy Chotard.
Like Sugawara, Chotard uses an incredible technique to create extraordinary pieces of wearable art.
As is the case with Sugawara's work, I am awe-struck by the amount of time required to create jewelry pieces of this nature. The technique not only requires patience and dedication, but a love for artisanship.
Between 1967 and 1970, Chotard studied Art at the École de Beaux-Arts. She worked in sculpture until 1989, and in 1993, after she did research on jewelry at the Ateliers de Fontblanche in Nimes for a year Chotard began making jewelry in her workshop.
The technique Chotard uses involves reducing silver and gold to wafer thin pieces and using a nylon thread to assemble them into substantial creations that appear weightless, almost fabric-like in some cases.
She painstakingly arranges and rearranges wafers of silver or gold into the form of a brooch pin, bracelet, or ring. Chotard is fascinated by the organization of multiple elements to create a single item. As much as 800 or 3,000 individual gold and silver wafers can compose a finished item.
Again, just like Sugawara's creations, Chotard's are truly mesmerizing pieces of designer jewelry. It is as though I am looking at something architectural as opposed to jewelry.
Chotard's incredible work has been exhibited in Paris, Switzerland, Montreal, and Tokyo, but unfortunately she does not have a website at this time. There only seems to be a handful of photos of her pieces.
Note: Images Redirect to Alternative Items At ShopStyle Collective
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Photo 1 (top right): Unnamed Nylon-Threaded Gold Bracelet
Photo 2 (bottom left): Unnamed Nylon-Threaded Gold Ring
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