I create useless objects.
And I find that profoundly essential.

Yesterday, someone asked me: "What is jewellery for?".

The question made me smile.

Objectively, a piece of jewellery does not feed, heal or answer any vital need.

You can go through an entire life without ever wearing a ring, a pendant or a pair of earrings. Life remains life and the body remains the body, with or without an accessory to adorn it.

And yet, jewellery often accompanies the most precious moments of an existence.

A birth, a meeting or a wedding, a victory, a personal reconstruction, a bereavement or a promise made to oneself, without witness.

An object of adornment, an intimate presence

Dictionaries describe jewellery as an object of adornment, precious through its material or its workmanship.

This definition is fair because it sets the frame, but it ignores the subtleties of the object.

A jewel is shaped, worked, worn and seen.
It belongs to the body and to appearance.

A piece of jewellery slips into everyday life with a very particular force. It touches the skin, follows the body's movements, warms through contact with the person who wears it.

It takes its place in a repeated gesture: fastening a chain, turning a ring around a finger, checking the presence of a pendant at the hollow of the neck.

A useless object close to the skin

A painting remains on a wall, a sculpture inhabits a space, a garment changes with seasons, uses and circumstances.

Jewellery, meanwhile, can accompany a person for years, sometimes for an entire life. It crosses cities, homes, trials and celebrations.

It rarely leaves the body by chance, and this is why it becomes intimate.

It serves to feel, to sense, to remember and to assert oneself.
It allows us to carry on ourselves a decision that belongs to no one else.

My useless creations

I shape a presence, a piece that accompanies someone for years, evolves with them and becomes the witness of their path.

This approach expresses a certainty: every person deserves to wear a piece as singular as her own journey.

Wearing jewellery influences the way we perceive ourselves intimately.

I see it as a garment can strengthen an attitude, as music can awaken an emotion or as a fragrance can become a signature.

A piece of art jewellery accompanies an identity and reveals part of the person who chooses it.

Tastes and colours are not up for debate.

It is true, because some people seek a clean line, others are drawn to the power of raw material with irregularities.
Others still choose symbolism. The one that joins their path, their values or a decisive moment in their life.

These choices go beyond aesthetics and express a sensitivity and a way of inhabiting the world.

A jewel can remain very sober and carry a great deal. It can be visible without seeking a "wow" effect and assert a presence without taking up all the space.

It is a matter of personal interpretation and feeling.

I think especially of clients who look for a piece after a period of change.

There is something very calm and at the same time very decisive in that choice, because in those moments, jewellery becomes a point of reference. It allows one to say "I have lived this, I move forward with this, and I choose what I wear on myself".

We rarely choose jewellery for its function.

We choose it for the pleasure of the eye and because it expresses what words keep.

It recalls a person, an anecdote or an emotion lived alone or together, in a certain place, at a certain time, at a certain moment.

Simply looking at it is enough for everything to be understood through it.

A piece of jewellery engages the way we look at ourselves, or at another.

One can offer oneself, or offer someone else, a ring to celebrate a bond, a pendant to remember someone or a pair of earrings to accompany a new stage of life.

A jewellery gift says "I thought of you and I found a piece capable of meeting your rhythm, your character and your story. It imposed itself on me like a message that will not disappear after the moment of the gift".

The jewel finds its owner and affirms her personality.

Craft, a useless language

From cutting to polishing, through sculpture and forging, a real dialogue begins between the hand and the material.

This way of creating takes time, but it breathes into each piece that little something which will guide it towards its future owner.

Totem Luth Pendant.
Remaining faithful to one's trajectory

At Honu Handmade Jewellery, the leatherback turtle holds a particular place. It has become the tutelary figure of the Maison.

Its seven ridges nourish the Luth Motif, the number 7 and a large part of my artistic language.

The Origine ring,
Revealing life

The Origine ring expresses birth, the corolla of a flower opening to reveal life.

I love this idea of origin.

A ring holds a very direct place in the language of the body. It accompanies the hand. It is seen when one writes, works, shakes another hand, touches a face or holds an object.

It participates in the way we act in the world.

Vaihau Pendant.
Taking refuge in softness

A pendant lives near the heart, on a vertical line, in a more supple movement. It follows breath, steps and posture. It appears and disappears according to clothing, light and gesture.

The softness of a jewel can become a refuge.

Mata'i'oa,
Seeing beyond appearances

The Mata'i'oa Pendant carries a name that already asks us to slow down.

Mata'i'oa is an unusual fish, gifted with a piercing gaze and capable of perceiving what escapes immediate evidence.

It is strangely right.

Some pieces are chosen for their calm, others for their strength, and others still because they recognise something in us before we know how to put it into words.

Mata'i'oa belongs to this last family.

A useless responsibility

I love the idea that a useless object can bring together beauty, meaning and commitment.

A jewel can remain intimate while opening a wider bond. Indeed, beauty is not separate from the world that makes it possible.

Honu Handmade Jewellery supports Te mana o te moana by donating 1% of its sales across all collections.

Founded by Dr Cécile Gaspar and Richard Bayler in 2004, the association Te mana o te moana, "the spirit of the ocean", has worked for more than 21 years to safeguard the Polynesian marine world, with particular attention to sea turtles, through its discovery, education and protection actions.

Care centre photo, Cécile, credit Te mana o te moana

"I create useless objects"

I love this sentence because it forces me to look at my craft without parade or artifice.

A piece of jewellery answers no primary or material necessity.

It replaces neither bread, nor care, nor shelter, but it answers deeply human needs: transmitting an emotion, preserving a memory, celebrating a bond, affirming one's identity and materialising a conviction.

If my craft consists in creating this type of object, then I have the certainty of practising one of the most beautiful crafts in the world: Useless. Profoundly. Essential.

Isabelle Bénatouil, Art Jewellery Artist