L’ATELIER
TRANSMISSION AND EXPERTISE
"I tried to gathered the best experts to create exceptional and unique pieces. You will never see the same detail on another piece and all work is executed by master hands."
CREATION AND EXPERTISE
From design to fabrication, today, all is done in the same factory.
As such, you will find all necessary trades to manufacture such exquisite details, crafted each piece individually and by hand by our experienced artisans (that go from cabinetmaker to turner miller).
Whom have specialized in the handling of rare and precious materials, such as: Malachite, Lapis Lazuli, Brass and Wood.
OUR ACTIVITIES
The Patineur
He finalises and gives the object, its color and its final appearance through a process of a treatment of the surface or by oxidation of the metal, a complex alchemy.
He heats the metal by applying chemical salts to it, to accelerate nature aging until the desired shade on all part of the sculpture, which he will then fix with the wax. He is in direct collaboration with the sculptor.
The stone workers
Malachite and lapis. That work consists on shaping and cutting precious or semi-precious stones. He chooses the colors of the rough stone and the cup, then he cuts it into thin strips and removes all impurities. These pieces of strips are assembled like a puzzle, to finally be sanded and polished for a final effect.
The Founders
He creates the moulds into which hot wax is injected. Then, coated with successive layers of bronze, they are putted in the oven to completely melt the wax. After that, the bronze is putted for serval hours in another very high temperature oven.
For the realization of the moulding, the foundry uses different techniques: sand or wax moulding. As the sand
moulding technique is getting very rare over the world, we are contributing to its lasting.
The Engravers
It sculpts, incises or digs using tools on the raw mouldings to bring out all the reliefs and details in order to
give back the identity of the object.
He works on the effects of the materials and the grain, as that mattes and glosses take their effects after the gilding. It transcribes the soal of the work created by the artist.
The Guilders
Specialist in gilding application, depending on the support, the techniques are different and require a lot of operation (bath, electrolysis, mercury), to make the surface alive and be able to brown it with 24 carats Gold.
Then come the finishes such as the Brunishing, a process that gives gold its brilliance.
MASTERS AND SKILLS
TRANSMISSION AND EXPERTISE
In 1989 working for different museums (Royal Castle in Warsaw and Hemitage in St Petersburg), I employed their best specialists : engravers from Warsaw and malachite stone workers from St Petersburg, all working according to the methods of the 18th century. These Masters have trained apprentices. This is how we have the best specialists in these fields, and they continue to pass on their know-how to new employees.
MATERIALS
MALACHITE
The Malachite is a semi-precious stone from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Used in jewelry but also
as decoration (vases, columns, clocks, furniture) especially in Russia from the 18th century. It is good for the health to wear it as a bracelet for its anti-rheumatic medicinal properties. We are glad to be able to work on a stone that’s getting harder to find every year.
LAPIS
The Lapis is a semi-precious stone from Afghanistan. It is used since high antiquity (Tutankamon's sarcophagus) as well as in jewelry. From the 18th century, it started to be use for furnitures, vases, clocks, and different objects.
BRASS
The Brass is a yellow copper-based alloy. It is used in foundry for clocks, statues, chiseled furnishing objects or in profile form.
GOLD
The Gold is one of the most wanted material in the world. We are using it in almost all our creations. According to the countries, and the value it has different titles: 9 carats, 14 cts,18 cts and 24cts (pure gold). To gild our objects and give our customers the highest quality, we use only 24 carats gold by a galvanizing process.
CRYSTAL
The Crystal We use Crystal mostly for lamps or vases in different shapes and colors. It is hand cut by specialized craftsmen.