The workshop
Every creature goes through the flame
Lampworked glass is never moulded. It is worked over a flame, one piece at a time, and that is why no two necklaces are quite the same.
01
The flame
The glass rod is heated until it softens. This is the shortest moment of all: a few seconds too long and the material runs instead of holding its shape.
02
Shaping
The body is formed first, then the claws, arms and legs are added one by one while the glass is still hot. Every addition has to happen before the piece cools.
03
The eyes
The eyes go on last, with the tip of the rod. This is the detail that gives each creature its character, and the one that varies most from piece to piece.
04
Assembly
The figure is threaded between the blue resin beads, then the gold-tone clasp and its adjustment chain are fitted by hand.
Lampworked glass
This is flame work, not kiln work. The rod of coloured glass is softened with a torch, then drawn and shaped during the few seconds it stays workable. Nothing is moulded, nothing is reproduced identically.
The tiny bubbles and shifts in colour are not flaws: they are the trace of the hand, and the proof the piece never came out of a mould.
The story
La baignade started from wanting to wear, every day, what you bring home from a summer: a crab spotted in the rocks, a shrimp in clear water, an octopus glimpsed offshore.
Runs are deliberately short. Every necklace is strung by hand, bead after bead, and the catalogue moves at the pace of the workshop rather than the seasons.