Clémentine Correzzola

Uniting enamel and jewellery

• Clémentine likes to mix enamel with more unconventional elements
• Her jewellery combines traditional knowledge and contemporary design
• Her specialisms are plique à jour and grand feu enamel

For Clémentine Correzzola, finding herself without a job was a blessing in disguise. Until 2009, she had been working as a cinema projectionist, but the advent of digital technology put her out of business and gave her the opportunity to go back to her true passion: jewellery making. This was a craft she would have loved to pursue in her youth, but was forced to leave aside for more classical studies, as her parents wished. “I was and still am passionate about enamel and jewellery,” she says. “I am intrigued by the transformation of the raw material, the tools, the technique. I am thrilled by the challenge of trying to succeed even when I don't know what will happen, and by the ability of my brain and my hands to come together and create a different piece each time, each with a different way of seeing...”

Interview

©Clementine Correzzola

©Clementine Correzzola

Where did you learn the craft of jewellery making?

I first took a one-year full time jewellery craft course in Lyon, and then went to Budapest to work in the workshop of master engraver Zoltan Szamek. Wanting to learn more about jewellery, I left for Brussels, and obtained a degree in contemporary jewellery and another one in the art of enamelling.

Did you train with any other masters?

I trained in champlevé enamel with Jane Short in England, contemporary techniques with Jessica Turrell, paint enamel with Marie Oberlin in Paris and finally Limoges enamel technique with Jean Zamora.

What are your sources of inspiration?

Inspiration comes from everywhere, from the prehistoric period right up to today and tomorrow! Both the complex and the simple world around me teach me stories that I can use in my creations. It goes from my brain to my hands.

What do you love most about your profession?

That you can use traditional skills to create infinite designs. That every day you have to find a way to create something with your hands thanks to your brain, and that hands and brain together, with the help of tools, can transform any materials. And that learning your craft never ends.

Clémentine Correzzola is an expert artisan: she began her career in 2015

Works

©Freddy d'Hoe

©Theodore Markovic

©Theodore Markovic

©Erwin Maes

©Theodore Markovic

Where