Constance speaks about the options offered to designers in Lille, her essentials grippers and her choices in terms of materials to guarantee an affordable price range.
Where do you work?
I have a workshop boutique in the south of Lille, I am part of a designers association called Maison de Mode. In this association, there are two districts (in Roubaix and in Lille) where workshops boutiques are available. It is great because otherwise I would not be able to have my own workshop. It is very nice to start, I have been part of this association for four years. There are many options for designers in Lille like fairs, associations, workshops, etc. There are also many options in Brussels and it is very close.
What is your favourite tool and how does it work?
My grippers, without it, I can’t do anything. By the way, I often break it whereas it is good metal. I don’t directly touch metal with my fingers, I really do everything with my grippers.
What are the other tools you use?
My computer is essential because you can’t only be behind your desk with your grippers. My special glues for my stones, to crimp. I also use metal files and my grippers again : cutting, flat…
I draw my pieces, I buy my chains, I am working with craftsmen who do brass plate cutting, chemical or laser cutting, it depends. Another craftsman collect these pieces to do gilding, silvering and bronze. I collect everything and then, I enamel the pieces, I finish the jewels. Each pendant is based on my drawings.
Which materials do you use?
Everything is in brass.
Why?
It is a solid metal but slightly flexible at the same time so it is perfect to make jewels. When you do baths (gilding, silvering…), you can’t do it with every metal. Brass is adapted to this process. It is quite common to work with this metal. Generally, for costume jewels, you work with brass or silver and then it is plated when you want something more up-market. It is quite natural, regarding chemical and laser cuttings, brass plates allow to create very thin pieces but solid, it’s nice.
How do you choose raw materials?
I work a lot with epoxy, I like less to use stones. It is quite natural but for the last collection, I wanted to crimp small glass beads. At the beginning, I wanted to use semi-precious stones but I am making costume jewels and I want to keep a specific price range. I want everybody to be able to buy my jewels so I choose glass beads because there are many options in terms of colours and it is more affordable than semi-precious stones. Honestly, there would have been affordable semi-precious stones, I would have preferred. That’s the way it happened. It can be a specific desire or a budgetary issue. I really like enamelling so I use epoxy, I like to work with it. I sometimes work with semi-precious stones, I have a collection of hematite stones, very thin and faceted to reflect light. I don’t like big stones, it is not my style jewels.
Where are your suppliers? In Lille?
In Lille, for jewels, there is nothing at all.There are more options in Lyon, in Paris or in Italy. I work a lot with Paris because it is very close.
Are you working alone in your workshop?
That depends, a person worked with me during a year and she left one year ago. Then, I had another employee who was more working on communication and marketing. I went back to production after putting it a bit aside. I think it works better this way. I prefer to produce, that’s more my thing. For now, I am working alone, some persons sometimes help me.
To read the next part : Constance L – 3/3 More details about Constance…
Photos : © Constance L. Photographies fournies par Constance Lepage et publiées avec son autorisation.
