The jeweller’s workshop

After the mock-up has been made and tested, the design arrives at the jewellers’ workshop, where it will begin to assume its final form. The experienced in house jewellers give shape to precious metals, creating complex structures and mechanisms that give the jewel lightness, movement and strength to hold all its precious stones securely. A great part of the jeweller’s work is to create the piece with as much accuracy as possible, so that all the precious stones will be able to fit perfectly later.

The stone sorters' studio

The stones used for the maison’s high jewellery collections are all of the highest standards of quality and purity, and are all non heated and non treated. All the stones are sourced by a team of expert stone buyers, who constantly scout the market for gems depending on the needs of the ateliers. The designers at Van Cleef & Arpels also use other materials such as coral or turquoise in their designs; these materials are again selected only if they are of outstanding quality. As for diamonds, Van Cleef & Arpels applies perhaps the highest standards of clarity and purity in the market; for the sourcing of all of its diamonds, they follow the Kimberley Process, which ensures that none of the gems are sourced from conflict regions.

Polishing and stone setting

Once the precious metal has been given the shape of the jewel, it is polished by hand until it gleams and all marks made by the jeweller’s tools are not visible (in fact, all the polishing is done only by women workers!) After the metal has been polished, the piece arrives at the gem-setter’s workshop, the ambience of which is different to the rest of the atelier: I actually had to knock on the door and ask for permission to enter because stone-setting demands a lot of concentration. The stone-setters work in silence while securely fixing all the diamonds, emeralds, rubies and other precious gems into the metal frame of the jewel by delicately hammering metal around each stone.