Placement in Paris

I decided to do a placement in the hope it would balance out the shortcomings of my university course. I'd also decided that I wanted it to be in Paris. I wasn't sure what to expect, I'd gotten an email address off one of the few known jeweller's working in Paris who'd passed on my pleading email to several of his colleagues. Several weeks later I'd gotten a reply from one, Brune Boyer Pellerej. I hadn't heard of Brune, and much of my research into who this woman was came back blank. So it was with slight trepidation that I set off for Gard Du Nord.

I'd got a pretty good deal with Brune. I was there to make jewellery and she was prepared to put me up in her spare bedroom.

She had her workshop in the downstairs part of her home. She shared the space with an ex-student of hers. As it turned out Brune had been one of the teachers in the contemporary jewellery school in Paris, AFEDAP. She had just recently decided to leave the school to give herself more time to work on her own stuff.

The project she is currently working on is for an exhibition in the Yufuku gallery in Tokyo. The day I began we started work on the pieces for this show.

Brune can be described as a studio jeweller. For me, thats an artist who uses jewellery as a form of expression. The way she approaches making tends to be through books, discussion and analytical thought. It seems the concept of a piece holds more importance than the aesthetic quality. Thats not to say that the look of it isn't important, of course it is but the point is it has to genuinely express the intent.

She doesn't draw or spend considerable time thinking about the design of the piece. She's more prone to sitting down having absorbed an idea and allowing her hands and thoughts do the work. Brune will often make a whole piece quickly to get a clear idea of its look and feel before doing another more accurately. This thought to hand experimenting I think can produce quite innovative results because you're solving problems and creating ideas as and when your producing the piece; rather than going with preconceived ideas about how a piece will look and the type of techniques used which often leads to predictable results

In her current work she's using iron as her material of choice with small amounts of fine silver or gold. Iron she says, is similar to gold and silver because it too is found in a natural state from the earth, yet holds much less significance from the others. She also likes the idea of using a material that anyone can pick up at the local hardware s

hop, and that it isn't expensive. The ideas surrounding these new pieces is the connection of the inner self and the outside world. A theme that runs through all of Brune's work. Brune told me, when you ask someone about a piece of jewellery they very rarely tell you its monetary value. They will usually give you the story of its sentimental value. Her new pieces are made so that over time the wearer, with the aid of a stone leaves an impression on a fine layer of silver thats build into the design. This mark making personalizes the piece, and allows the wearer to be involved in the making of it.

I found constructing the pieces at times fiddly, annoying and infuriating; and at times questioning whether I really wanted to do jewellery. I think the difference comes in making your own pieces; were essentially your part of the whole process from design to production. I realised there are always going to be times when the process can be difficult but that it's important to persevere. The sense of achievement eventually comes.

Brune's very quiet about her achievements. She never mentioned that she had a piece of jewellery in the Les Arts Décoratifs in Paris. I also discovered that several of her pieces are in key resources for jeweller's here in the UK. I liked her modest approach to it all. She hadn't mentioned any of these things about herself, I found out either haphazardly or through her ex-students and colleagues. I'd asked Brune to tell me what had attracted her to becoming a jeweller. She said that working with her hands had always been an necessity for her. Coming from a very musical family she had initially wanted to work as a stringed musical instrument maker. The best school at the time had been outside France and at 15 years old she was too young to leave home. It was by chance she met the jeweller Yves Gratas who took her to his workshop where she was impressed by the atmosphere and the work. After this meeting she decided that she'd attend a beginners evening class. It was the norm at the time to take on an apprenticeship at the age of 14 if you tended to be less able at academic subjects in school. Brune's track record in school had been very good and her family thought it best if she stayed on. By the time Brune had reached 17 and started looking for an apprenticeship she was considered too old and over-qualified and struggled to get anyone to take her on. She'd heard about a school in Geneva and applied to get in. She passed the entry exams and moved there to start her first year. Not unlike the Bauhaus the first year was attended by all students irrespective of the subjects you where later to specialist in. This meant that fine artists, ceramists and jeweller's spent the first year together learning subjects like life drawing, colour theory, arts history etc. After the first year she did an apprenticeship for a year then went back to the school for a further 3 years, studying in total for 5 years.

At the time Ester Brinkman had been the head of the jewellery department and the only teacher. It being a relatively new school, the five students who attended were sent to fine artists, architects and craft teachers to be taught. It's interesting to note that at the time, running in tandem was a traditional jewellery course. The teachers of this course often referred to the students of the contemporary course as 'Les Nul' - The Useless.

On graduating she moved to Paris and tried initially to get a job as a designer specialising in jewellery. It being poorly paid and having several bad experience with companies, Brune decided instead that she'd focus on her own work and getting exhibitions. It was around this time that she came across a newly formed organisation that is still running today, Corpus.

Set up by young French contemporary jeweller's the aim of the collective was to promote contemporary jeweller via events and exhibitions. Made up of approximately twelve jeweller's, they meet up to establish themes in which to build work round, which will eventually be exhibited. They often have guest speakers in to provide more information on a chosen topic. In the past quest have included archaeologists, sociologists and physiologists.

She was then approached to help set up the contemporary jewellery school, AFEDAP. She had been here since 1993 before deciding to concentrate on her own work.

I very much enjoyed my experience with Brune. Its given me a new way of approaching jeweller or maybe its just provided me with the confidence to go ahead with my idea and see it through to the end instead of constantly doubting whether it'll be good enough. I also discovered that it's important to be striving for innovation in jeweller, pushing the boundaries of what it can and should be. It also reinforced the necessity to produce pieces with an excellent grasp of the technical skills required and to produce something fit for purpose.

All that remains is for me to say thank you to Brune and her family for making me feel so welcome. A big thank you also for the hospitality showed by all those who I came across while in Paris.