Q & A with Jewelry Designer Colette

Colette is the extremely talented, gorgeous French-Mexican jewelry designer that has gone from having her designs in museum galleries to A-list celebrities. She’s been designing for over 15 years and attributes her travels and the Mexican culture as sources of inspiration. Her jewels caught my attention because she uses rare gems with unique color combinations–definitely not commercial quality stones in her line! Everything is feminine, sparkly and incredible pieces of art!

I caught up with Colette to see what she’s been up to:

Right now I am working on my new collection to be presented at Couture June 2013 It is going to be a collection inspired by Africa, I spent 2 months this Sumer visiting the continent. I went to many of the different countries. My soul and my mind really react to what I experience throughout my journey. The collection will be all one of a kind pieces. I am planning on a total of 100 jewels all together including earrings, pendants, necklaces and rings as you have never seen them before. They start on your fingers but evolve to your hand. The collection will have a few surprises too!

I started my jewelry career when I went to college at 18 years old the study graphic design. From that time, I knew I made the right choice, those years give me the foundation to be able to understand simple elements that are very important in what I do. For example – from drawing the initial sketch to bringing a piece of jewelry to life. I also went to GIA to complete my studies and I continue to learn more as I go along until this very day.

My proudest moment in my jewelry career was at the very beginning when I had to work very hard to put together all the money that I needed in order to create my first collection. I bought my gold and my stones, at the time I used 20k gold and only green stones – many tourmalines peridots and apatites. It took me about 4 months to make 20 pieces; I worked on it non stop!  Then I made a solo exhibit in an art gallery and my proudest moment was when I saw my collection all together in those cases hanging in the walls of the gallery, and one of my professors who taught me art history ( who happens to be the one who gave me hardest time while in college)  gave a speech for the opening of the exhibit.  I felt amazing and it was the beginning of my journey in my jewelry career.

My dream is to continue to travel the world and always be open to new inspirations and experiences that help me create what I love – jewelry.   My hopes to keep on building a strong following and to expand to more countries. One of the big projects next year is the opening of my second store in Mexico City. It is going to be a new concept on a jewelry store very artsy  and nature inspired with an edgy twist.

My favorite pieces of jewelry that I own are my great grand mother’s Boucheron brooch–made out of exquisite blue sapphires and diamonds, all set in platinum. Also another favorite one is a Cartier ring from my French grandma that has two red pigeon’s blood rubies in a pear shape, and one central diamond. (Below are a stack of Colette’s rings which she loves so much, she never takes off!)