The Gifted Gisele Ganne.

Gisele Ganne is a french jewellery designer currently working in London, she studied product design in France before moving to study at the Royal Academy of Art in London. Gisele is a designer with an original, distinct message represented through her jewelery, being recognised for her mourning or memorial jewelery. 'Common symbols used in mourning jewellery included forget-me-nots, flowers, hearts, crosses, ivy leave and more macabre symbols such as skulls, coffins and gravestones, I refer too these, and expound upon them glamorizing death to the level of Haute Couture Catwalk'
She also focuses on dead relationships and 'decaying marriages' 'I use union and marriage symbols and subvert them to show that from these ashes may raise a new life'


The subject undoubtedly throws up questions as to why? Why the use of such themes, fortunately an online interview enabled me to be able to read the answers directly from Gisele herself...
'Inverting the romantic ideas of jewellery has always been a major theme in your work. How did that begin?'
'Well. I guess I began thinking about the gifts you receive for positive moments in life, for example birthdays and anniversaries. Traditionally jewellery is used to celebrate these moments but life is not exclusively full of these things. I see the jewellery box as symbolic of life, collections of where you have been on holiday and gifts you have received. It says so much about one person and their life and I feel as though the bad moments must be remembered and immortalized in jewellery.

And her inspiration...'You got a lot of your inspiration from the Victorian Era, specifically mourning the dead, what did you discover in your research?''I discovered this when I first came to London and was studying at the Royal College of Art, I didn't know anything about it before and I just loved it so much, it influenced my whole collection. I discovered lots of symbolic references to hair and teeth, women would wear their husband's skeletons as necklaces as a way to remember them. Although it mourning jewellery, it actually has a very beautiful message embedded in it. You must appreciate your life, and I think that is such a beautiful concept.'



The explanation for these rings...'There are several contrasts in your work, specifically the bird skull knuckle-dusters, which are decorated with flowers and pearls.'
These are the divorce rings. I began envisioning divorce as the end of one moment in life and the start of another. The French tradition is to offer pearls and flowers to the bride, I suppose I wanted to hold onto these elements when I created divorce jewellery.'



And the beautiful fur jewellery....
'After divorce, you have to find a new husband and this is how I created my next collection, titled 'Hunting Man'. I began working with fur, to create something sexier and more appealing. The story of jewellery is very important to me and I don't think it should be designed purely aesthetic purposes. Whatever it is I am working on, I want to remain my ethos.'





It cant be denied that this is not your usual inspiration and theme running through jewellery designs, however, despite the morbid background behind the pieces, they are outstandingly beautiful, original and completely show stopping..