Émilie Moutard-Martin

Featherworker

©Regine Louiset

©Oettinger Davidoff

©Olivier Helbert

©Eric Valdenaire

Precious feathers

Émilie specialises in miniature feather work
She invented a process of gilding with a feather leaf
She has collaborated with major Luxury Houses

Émilie Moutard-Martin is a feather artist, she works the material to highlight its particularities and to create new textural effects. “I didn't choose the feather, it is the feather that chose me. The stories I wanted to tell could not be expressed in words. Rather than dipping it in ink, I made the feather itself the ink for my creations.” She has developed a know-how in miniature feather work and feather marquetry which allows applications on micro-supports, notably in the fields of jewellery and fine watchmaking. Her inspiration comes from the natural elements, the light that sublimates them: “The sensations experienced when facing the impalpable, the ephemeral, make me read the immensity of the world in detail. I read a landscape in a shell.”

Interview

©Charlote Debauge

©Olivier Helbert

Was there a key moment that inspired you to start in this craft?: The key moment was seeing an exhibition of simple samples of feather work. I saw them as if they were impressionist paintings. This Proustian experience revived in me what we feel when we are kids, when we discover a beautiful feather on the beach and see it as a unique treasure.
What techniques are distinctive to your work?: I am fascinated by the structure of the feather itself, I had the idea of working with it in the form of a pigmentary powder and invented a flocking technique that allows me, while transforming it, to highlight its textural and coloured properties: its brilliance, its matte, its iridescences.
In what way is your craft linked to the territory?: Feather art is intercultural. It has spread throughout the world over the centuries. It cannot be confined to one place. Rather than being confined to one territory, I want to open up and travel the "feather route" – equivalent to the silk route – to meet my peers and discover their know-how.
What do you enjoy most about your profession?: Being in my studio, away from the world, elaborating, creating, shaping, repeating gestures endlessly, leads me into a meditative state. This inner journey allows me to open up to the world and to participate in the universality of emotions.

Émilie Moutard-Martin is a master artisan: she began her career in 2009 and she started teaching in 2015