Jewellery designer and sculptor Charlotte Chesnais has teamed up with Italian arbiter of luxury Loro Piana to collaborate on a limited series of candleholders. Characteristic of Chesnais’ organic, fluid shapes, three different designs – single, double and triple candleholders – come in bronze, silver and gold.
Often taking inspiration from household objects for her jewellery and sculptural designs, Chesnais wanted to create ‘an object that evoked warmth… reminiscent of [Loro Piana’s] exceptional cashmere’, in contrast to the cold metals she uses. She arrived at the idea of candleholders.
Charlotte Chesnais
Considering the candleholders ‘jewellery for the home’, she used the same principles and processes as she does for her jewellery and sculptures: ‘I start with a drawing and then experiment with materials: modelling clay, wire or iPhone cable, which I twist and deform until I find the shape I like. Then in the workshop we make life-size 3D impressions with resin before creating the first prototypes,’ she says.
Using the ancient process of ‘lost wax casting’ allows Chesnais to maintain absolute control and precision over shapes that often appear to take their own meandering path. ‘There are many small steps that each reveal a different facet of craftsmanship. And the bigger the objects, the more complex the process,’ she says. The candleholders are produced by expert makers in workshops in France and Italy.
Chesnais, who studied fashion at Studio Berçot in Paris, and honed her design tastes by exploring Parisian flea markets from a young age, expanded her practice from jewellery design to encompass sculpture in 2019 when she was asked to be president of the Hyères Festival. Inspired by the scope of Villa Noailles and the office of Marie-Laure de Noailles, she ‘felt the urge to present bolder, bigger things: sculptures of my jewellery’.
She recalls her first interaction with Loro Piana 15 years earlier, when she was designing jewellery in-house for Balenciaga. ‘We bought rolls of cashmere for our collections. It was incredible, everyone wanted to roll in it. There is still nothing like it on the market and I have always wanted to work with Loro Piana ever since.’
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