Christelle was born and grew up in the beautiful French Jura mountain region which remains her spiritual home. She returns to the Jura every summer to see her family and friends and draws strength and inspiration from the natural beauty, indeed she drew the very first sketches of her Renaissance Collection during a retreat there.
In her late teens, her growing sense of adventure took her to London where she studied International Business and for 12 years she embraced living in one of the most vibrant cities in the world and enjoyed everything it had to offer. Carving out a successful career as a television news journalist and presenter for Channel Four, the BBC and Bloomberg Television, she subsequently headed the distribution arm of a leading factual documentaries production company.
She moved to Edinburgh with her husband in 2004 and a couple of years followed where she had beautiful baby daughter, quit her media job and re-trained as a jeweller at the Leith School of Arts to fulfil her dream to design and make jewellery. Having moved into her teacher’s workshop at The Drill Hall in Leith with a couple of fellow students, she practiced her skills with silver and experimented with ideas, and became a resident of the pioneering Precious Metals Workshop. Over the years she has created numerous one-of-a-kind pieces, gradually including more gemstones as she developed her stone-setting skills. In 2014, she studied CAD design in Glasgow and set up her jewellery business with her debut collection of fine jewellery, Renaissance.
‘My job as a writer and presenter was creative yet I had this yearning to create something with my hands, something more primitive than intellectual. I remember clearly the day I knew I was going to be a jewellery designer after a random visit to an independent designers shop in Islington, London. On impulse I bought an amazing silver and gold shell necklace; it was an epiphany. As I held it I knew that was what I wanted to do. I was moving to Edinburgh a month later and on arrival I applied to a jewellery making course at the Leith School of Arts – my journey had begun.
I have a passion for texture, pattern and colour and love the earthiness and strength and the paradoxical delicacy of metal, in effect its “melt-ability”. I like to mix this with the vibrancy and the power of gemstones to seduce and be seduced; a jewel can steal my heart and make me stop right there, in awe. Jewels symbolise lasting love, burning bright right now and forever more.
Today, as a designer, I immerse myself in the attention to detail required with the composition and presentation of my work. A meaningful story is still important to me; I see jewellery as a wearable collaboration between the maker and the wearer, epitomising our universal connection and my designs are essentially about sharing a story which I hope will transport women and make them smile and feel sexy.’
Christelle