ZOE CELESTINE VAN REETH

Célestine

Roma, ITALY

“The human invented jewels to be able to wear sculptures.”

Zoé is a Belgian goldsmith based in Rome. She first studied architecture in Bruxelles for three years, then she felt the need to leave her native country and culture, to discover a new way of living. She moved to Rome to continue her studies: she signed up to the course of industrial design at European Institute of Design. Then she concluded her training at the Goldsmith Academy in Rome. There, she learned the traditional techniques of working with precious metals to become a jewellery artisan.
From that point she experimented in her lab organic shapes, different techniques and combinations of textures.

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Value in the details

Zoé's Journey from Traditional Metalwork to the Enchantment of Lost-Wax Casting

When Zoé studied at the Goldsmith Academy of Rome, she learned the traditional metal work, how to weld the metal, how to create volumes directly from the metal.
Few years later, she was sharing the lab with another jewellery maker, and discovered that they were using different techniques: for the first time she heard about wax-modelling and lost-wax casting. She learned this technique by herself, experimenting new shapes, (especially organic textures) which the previous knowledge didn't allow her to achieve.
Lost-wax casting became, from that day, her favourite technique, because it allows her to transform her ideas and research into something material, in a better way.
The real magic moment for her is when she goes to the foundry and discover the first rough material result of what she had in her mind few days before.