Bernardaud by Marion Vidal
Marion Vidal began her first steps in jewelry with ceramics, earthenware more precisely, which she has been developing for 15 years, so, this collaboration came as no surprise.
Bernardaud invited her to come and discover the know-how of the manufacture in Limoges and gives her carte blanche for a new direction in porcelain jewelry.
Just as impressed and seduced by the workshops of the Limoges Manufactory as by seeing the promising technical advances, Marion Vidal was interested in how to highlight this material whose sensuality, whiteness, shine, purity and delicacy seem in contradiction with what she discovers to be, in reality, the hardest of ceramics. But without forgetting what makes her signature; the particular attention paid to details, to the joints, to the comfort of the jewel in contact with the body. For her, a jewel must always be sensual and tactile.
“Porcelain is for me a precious material, which has immense technical potential. I thought I knew it very well but I remain surprised and fascinated by its extreme shine due to a very white, very tense glaze. I was also very impressed by the technical capacities and the very advanced research projects developed within the Bernardaud workshops and by their willingness and ability to always go further technically.‘‘ - says Vidal. An architect trained in Paris and Milan, then graduated from the famous Fashion department of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, Marion Vidal has a creative process similar to that of an architect or a designer. She always works on the form according to the material. Her creations are inspired by multiple technical, artistic and poetic sources and always seek to strike a balance between technique and elegance. Her jewels are articulated, connected compositions, binding different elements, going to the greatest detail with a concern to find the right proportions and oppositions for a powerful jewel but still comfortable to wear.
For the Alba collection, Marion Vidal’s mission is to create a signature collection, pure and timeless, by rediscovering the grace of a jewel from Ancient Egypt in a contemporary world. It started with a curved, generous shape and then hollowed out to create an opposition between this curved and rounded volume and a flat, reentrant face. This contrast is also accentuated by strong colors.
Simple types of jewelry, of geometric and refined origin were chosen: a choker, a circular pendant, sleeper earrings, a flat ring, a hoop ring.
The collection exists in several colors as well as an all white version to further highlight the beauty and purity of the whiteness of the porcelain.
For the pendants, elegant gold clips connect the porcelain elements to a thin gold-plated chain and very elegant custom-made laser-cut gold- plated frames for the earrings and hoop rings.
The pieces in the Figures collection are sculpturejewelry, like small shapes carved in porcelain presenting a multitude of curves of different thickness. Five pendants that become charms or talismans, which can be adopted, worn or also held in hand because their shapes are pleasantly tactile.
The colored cord coordinated with the pendant surrounds and supports the porcelain part and it is tightened by a metal clip sewn by hand in the workshops of the Bernardaud manufacture.
The decoration is like a colored vibration around the vertical, in the center of the jewel.
Two are worn long, three are worn short.
