Jean Vendôme: Serving the stones without betraying them

A story of passion

Jean Vendôme was born in 1930 in Lyon. He began his career at the age of 13 with his uncle, the jeweler Der, where he acquired real know-how over 5 years. At the same time, Jean is passionate about drawing and gemology. At 18, he opened his first workshop in the 18th arrondissement and delivered his first orders for rue de la Paix. He draws all his creations with extreme precision.

One morning, Jean Cocteau came into his workshop with a gold nugget in his hand and asked him to make a piece of jewelry out of it. Jean Vendôme then created cufflinks which gave birth to the “nugget” style. Then begins his career!

“I entered this profession (...) using precious stones with respect for the profession and honoring crystals and raw minerals (...) to realize my dreams in objects, but not to reproduce parts indefinitely. The multiple wears out the model! »

Nugget style creations

Here are 4 creations fascinating for their modernity:

1. The Ferret ring

Very marked by his life experience in India and fascinated by different rituals observed there, he began making his own ceramics in 1956, notably a series of totems. These totems will then inspire a collection of jewelry with architectural dimensions.

He calls them “his miniature architectures with an antique look, intended for queens and vestal virgins more than for women of our society”. Jewelry that is both contemporary and ancestral and will remain relatively unknown.

2. The Pendant ring

Sculpture ring that sits on the hand, inspired by the abstraction of the 70s, it is like a signature in space. Jean Vendôme is keen to create jewelry that can be worn in two different ways, as I like to do with the Réversible collection, here this ring can also be worn as a pendant.

3. Hide-and-Seek Ring

One of Jean Vendôme's latest rings composed of polished material, worked material and his favorite stone: watermelon tourmaline. Spectacular, this ring can be separated and worn as a piece of jewelry, either all in gold or all in stones. It runs all over the hand and dresses it!

“I play with minerals like a painter with his palette. »

4. The double volute ring

This ring is made up of a line of timeless diamond which goes in the direction of the lengthening of the fingers of the hand.

Here decorated with a stone

and here in a more minimalist version

In short, over a 77-year career, Jean Vendôme has tested all styles and established himself as a major figure in jewelry. He never stopped working with yellow gold and precious and semi-precious stones which he considered to be sculptures of nature.