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Maria Doulton: Two years ago, Louis Vuitton opened its first jewellery boutique on Place
Vendôme. All around them are the big names in jewellery, and to be one of these players,
you need a high jewellery atelier or workshop. We're at the Louis Vuitton workshops, and
with me is CEO, Hamdi Chatti, of Watches and Jewellery.
Hamdi Chatti: Hello, and welcome to the Louis Vuitton high jewellery workshop. The atelier
is the heart of our activity, actually; everything starts from here.
Maria: One of the reasons that Paris has maintained its position as the place for high jewellery
workshops is because the skills have been maintained generation after generation, so
workmen here perhaps were trained by their fathers, or started as apprentices when they
were very young, meaning that the skill of making jewellery by hand is very much alive
in Paris.
Here we see pearls being drilled to be strung onto a necklace that is part of the new Chain
Attraction collection. Here we see a master jeweller working on a
clasp. Note that the diamonds have already been set, and that the jeweller is soldering
one piece of the complex closing mechanism. Here we see a rubellite being set as a central
stone in a ring. Note how the jeweller is carving and adjusting the metal so that the
stone fits snugly and perfectly in its very own little setting.
When setting smaller diamonds, precision requires setting through binocular microscopes. Here
we see one of the jewellers working on setting a row of diamonds that have to be perfectly
even and smooth.
Hamdi:Last time, we have seen the heart of the gemstone department, where we select all
our beautiful stones. Then, from the stone, we need to have a department that works out
and manufactures everything perfectly to a piece, and to make the gemstone sparkle.
Maria:If you want to know all that's happening in the world of jewellery and watches, visit
my website: thejewelleryeditor.com.