HANDCRAFTED JEWELRY MAKING

 

Custom made ring

EN | FR

The Creation Process Behind an Artisanal Piece

Every designer has their own approach to jewelry making, shaped by their unique sensitivity and methods.
At La Lueur de l’Aube, our founder Makiko Akiyama always begins by working directly in volume, without going through a traditional sketching phase. She shapes the material by hand until the prototype takes form.

Once this first wax model is fully refined, it is placed in a rubber mold, which allows us to create a production mold. From this mold, we can produce multiple wax replicas, which are carefully retouched using small tools to refine the texture and adjust the finest details.

The wax model is then entrusted to the caster, who uses the lost-wax technique: the wax piece is encased in plaster, then heated until the wax melts and leaves a cavity. This cavity is then filled with precious metal—silver, gold, or vermeil—which takes the exact shape of the original model.

Once the metal has been cast, the piece is retrieved and then hand-finished in our workshop: any casting marks are removed, the surface is polished, stones are set if needed, and every detail is meticulously checked. If the piece is to be gold-plated, it is sent out for gilding before returning to the workshop for final inspection.

Only after going through all these lengthy, precise, and entirely handcrafted steps are our pieces ready for sale. Rings, necklaces, bracelets, and earrings then become part of our collection.

Of course, each jewelry house has its own way of working.
In the case of custom-made jewelry, the process begins with the client: their desires and inspirations—be it a sketch, a stone, a texture, or a color—guide the creation from the very start.


The Art of Handcrafted Jewelry, Accessible and Without Compromise

At La Lueur de l’Aube, we bring special care to each step, with the intention of offering genuine artisanal craftsmanship, entirely handmade in our atelier-boutique in Paris’s 6th arrondissement, while keeping our pieces affordable, without ever compromising on quality or attention to detail.


A few of our collections

 
Lili-Rose Boecasse