Chloé Hoquet, artisan jeweller and metalsmith: gold sculpted in ancient forms

Three years in the workshop lie between answering a calling and achieving true craftsmanship. Chloé Hoquet spent this time working alongside Guillaume Estrade, a ‘Meilleur Ouvrier de France’ and chiselling tutor at the École Boulle. He taught her the rare techniques of this craft.

In 2012, she graduated with a diploma in arts and crafts, specialising in chiselling. Her final piece, entitled Icarus, was a kinetic champagne set inspired by Émile Reynaud’s praxinoscope. Its movement evokes the flight of a dragonfly.

This piece earned her two first prizes in the Île-de-France region, one awarded by the Rotary Club and the other by the INMA (now the Institut pour les Savoir-Faire Français). It was subsequently exhibited at the Carrousel du Louvre, the Musée des Arts et Métiers, the Parc Floral de Paris and even in Japan.

Her diploma opened another door: that of working with tiny pieces. Having trained in working with larger pieces, the engraver now wanted to learn how to work on a smaller scale. She moved to Montpellier to work for a master jeweller whose family had been in the trade for four generations. He taught her the basics of handmade jewellery.

Next came a Parisian high-end jewellery workshop. There, she worked on designs, chasing and production for leading brands, discovering their exacting standards of precision in the process.

In 2014, she set up her own business and undertook the shaping and repoussé work on motifs for exceptional cuffs, bracelets and earrings for Place Vendôme houses.

In 2017, she completed her training by obtaining a Master’s degree in Fine Arts from the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, which broadened her perspective further.

In 2024, she set up her own workshop and gradually stopped working for others. Two years later, four of her pieces, brought together under the title Vestiges, were exhibited at the Petit Palais as part of The Art of Making.

The first piece was created without any real plan. Chloé Hoquet began with a sheet of yellow gold, forged the necessary tools and carved twenty squares into the metal.

Using techniques such as tracé-mati and repoussé, she matted the tip of the chisel to shift the material rather than remove it. She then carved out the reliefs and organised the surfaces so that light would flow between the matt and polished areas.

The ring is called Rome. It is two millimetres wide and evokes ancient cities.

This piece gave rise to a design vocabulary that has since been adapted for rings, necklaces and pendants bearing the names Mycenae, Helios, Rhomboid and Artemis. The motifs have ancient origins. Civilisations such as the Maya, the Egyptians and the Minoans never crossed paths, yet each shaped squares, triangles, rhythms and patterns that echo one another.

“These forms speak to us without us knowing why; they touch something deep within,” says Christophe Hoquet, her partner and business associate.

The stones arrive afterwards, or sometimes beforehand. Two approaches coexist at the workbench.

The first starts with the motif. Once finalised, the gemstones to bring the design to life must be found, often in cuts that contemporary jewellery has abandoned in favour of round and oval shapes. Right-angled triangles, which are distinct from trillions with their softened corners, are hard to come by, especially when they need to be found in several varieties of gemstone.

The second approach starts with the gemstone. Chloé Hoquet spots the gemstone that speaks to her at specialist markets, buys it, and then builds the composition around it.

The gold is recycled, 18-carat and usually yellow to echo the metals of antiquity. While the environmental argument is important, it is not the primary consideration; the value of gold has long made remelting a natural choice. Indeed, the metal sometimes comes from the wearer themselves — an inherited piece of jewellery whose remelting extends its history into a new form.

Chloé’s workshop occupies a room measuring fifteen square metres, lit by a rectangular glass roof. Two oak workbenches stand side by side: one for engraving and the other for jewellery making. There is also a side table and vice made from the same wood.

The rolling mill is used to draw out gold wires and sheets. Light floods the room all day long, gradually giving way to a play of light and shadow as evening falls.

The music never stops here, favouring trip-hop – a genre born in Bristol at the turn of the 1990s – as well as classical music and compositions blending orchestral and electronic elements.

Drawing fills the remaining hours, particularly nude drawings, providing a silent outlet free from commission. Gemmology courses are also on the programme to further deepen her knowledge of gemstones.

Such work now makes up the bulk of her business. A man she met at a trade fair wants a signet ring. The appointment takes place a month later at his home and consists of a warm, friendly conversation in an intimate setting.

The aim is to mark a transition — the passage into adulthood — and to find a form in the metal that expresses it.

Another client treats herself to a ring for her thirtieth birthday, capturing the ‘before’ and ‘after’ in gold and gemstones. The jewellery keeps its secret. Those who see it cannot guess its meaning; only those who wear it know.

Family heirlooms often feature in these stories. For example, an Art Deco engagement ring that has been deemed old-fashioned may be remelted and its stone reset, giving the piece a new lease of life and ensuring that the legacy continues.

Projects can sometimes be summed up in just a few words, such as a large-scale centrepiece that will take nearly a year to complete or an off-site exhibition in a gallery or selected hotels.

“People open up to her, and she draws from their stories what will become the raw material,” says Christophe Carvalho-Hoquet.

The rest can be summed up in one sentence: ‘Chloé is a person, not a brand.’