Interview With Etienne Perret

Etienne Perret's tagline is "nobody treats diamonds better," and there is some real truth to that double meaning.

In his Camden Harbor studio in Maine, multiple award-winning jewelry designer Perret is busy creating some of the more graceful, playful and dynamic pieces of wearable art available to women today.  His use of color treated diamonds is careful and elegant; his attention to detail exquisite.

My mother and I have been very familiar with Mr. Perret's work over the years as both customers and admirers, and it was with much excitement that I learned recently that he was a new reader of The Bling Blog.  We struck up an email conversation and discovered that we are like-minded with regard to issues of quality, style and the high esteem in which a jeweler must hold his or her customer, specifically women.

A quick look at Etienne Perret's work reveals an abundant love for his craft, for women and for the concept of timeless, yet modern design.  Delving a bit more deeply with him in conversation, you will be as delighted as I was by his depth of understanding of what women want, by his love of family and by his unfettered adoration of his art.

Enjoy!

What is your background and training?

I have been making jewelry for 35 years, WOW!  That makes me an old man, funny I don't feel like an old man.  I started making jewelry for my high school sweetheart.  My father had a shop that we worked in making all sorts of arts and crafts projects.  For some reason he had a piece of silver around, that he let me have to make her a ring and bracelet.  I found that it was a great way to win points with the ladies.  Making jewelry was easy for me and women like jewelry.

I was a forestry student at the University of Vermont back in the 1970s and made jewelry on the side which I then sold at the girl's dormitories and later at the local craft fairs.  In 1975 I dropped out of school to start a small jewelry store in Camden, Maine.  It was a great little store, however I felt like I was in a vacuum and needed to learn more quickly so I went to the Rhode Island School of Design where I got my Bachelor of Fine Arts in Jewelry and Sculpture in 1978.

The jewelry design thing seemed to be under control, but I needed to know about the gemstones I was working with.  Closing the store was not a possibility so I got my Graduate Gemologist degree from GIA by correspondence.  It would have been great to have taken the classes in California, but I could not leave my growing business.  Since then I have taken and taught at places like the Revere Academy in San Francisco.

How did you know you wanted to be a jewelry designer?

I became a jewelry designer by default.  It seems that nothing was more enjoyable in my life than sitting down at the bench to make my own jewelry designs.  There is something very special and intimate about making a piece of jewelry that a woman wears right on her body.  It makes me feel good having designed a piece of jewelry that enhances the look and presence of a woman.

Who/what are your design and style influences?

 

I love clean elegant lines.  Bauhaus in architecture.  Calvin Klein, Halston, and Donna Karan for fashion design.  Friedrich Becker, Bulgari, and Niessing for jewelry.  (note:  Perret was born in the US, in NYC, of Italian-Swiss and German-Swiss parents.  He comes by his influence quite honestly!)

Describe Etienne Perret's niche and style. 

 

My niche is one created out of being myself versus what the market is screaming for.  I make the designs I want to using the materials that I love.  Then I go about pricing what I make and finding a way to sell what I make so that I can buy more materials to make more jewelry.  Unfortunately the gold and diamonds are an expensive habit to be dealing with.  I have worked hard to keep my overhead low so that I am not forced to make the compromises many other designers are forced to make.

What makes you unique?

We are all unique if we allow our selves to be so.  Unfortunately most people are afraid to be themselves.  I believe that I am unique in that I will try designs in platinum with diamonds, that most people would only dare to do in stainless steel and rhinestones.  If I believe in my ideas then I will make the pieces using the very best in materials.

What are your favorite materials?

 

My favorite material to work in as a jeweler is 18kt yellow gold.  It is just right in its ability to hold a form, its workability, the ability to take a polish.  It is easy to see while you work on it.  Feels good in your hand and of course it compliments the color of most woman's skin wonderfully.  Platinum is an amazing metal to work with in building pieces for white diamonds.  It gives the pieces a very clean, cold, brilliant look.  There are so many wonderful materials, I can go on forever, and that is without mentioning all the amazing gemstones.

What materials would you like to see come back in style?

 

I would like to see more 18kt rose gold being used.  It has such a history in jewelry.  For some women it is a better color than yellow gold.  I just do not get it why everybody always wants to wear what their friends are wearing.

 

You seem to really embrace the use of color, in particular, the use of colored diamonds.  I know you use irradiated (color treated) diamonds, why is this preferable for your purposes?

 

I use color treated diamonds because I love the playfulness of color without sacrificing the durability and brilliance of diamonds. Many of my designs need multiples of diamonds all the same color.  This would be very difficult with natural color diamonds.  Most of designs use bright intense colored diamonds, these often do not exist in natural color diamonds.  Most of my designs are meant to be worn by real people and not gem collectors.  Natural color diamonds are so rare and expensive most sit in vaults or in museums.  I want to make colored diamond jewelry that is worn by women in the scope of their normal life.

What are some of your favorite pieces in your current collection?

 

I am having fun right now with the colored diamond rainbow pieces.  I have made a collection of channel bands and pendants using the rainbow colors.  There is so much more to explore in that direction.  The most exciting designs are those that still allow me to go on designing within that concept.

(note:  the colored diamond rainbow pieces show are done in 18kt rose or yellow gold, and platinum)

Your all-time favorite piece of jewelry?

 

My Madonna pearl ring is one of my all-time favorites.

Named after the Madonna the ultimate mother with child, and not the actress.

(note:  the Madonna pearl ring is designed with a large Tahitian pearl and set in platinum with pavé diamonds)


If you could design for any celebrity, who would it be?

 

I think the look of Bai Ling is perfect for my jewelry.  I have not seen her movies nor have I actually met her.  However, I think her presence is very interesting and would show off my jewelry wonderfully.

Who else, besides you, is making beautiful jewelry?

 

Jordan Schlanger is such a nice guy and his work is interesting.  Michael Good has made some wonderful sculptural pieces.  I met Michael back in the late 70s.  He was working in his unheated garage making these really neat hollow silver earrings.  At the time I had a large studio, a full service jewelry store and a credit line with my gold refiner.  I suggested to Michael that he come work with me and focus on his designing.  The design concept was hot so I offered to sell everything he could make, and we were off and running.  The business grew very nicely to the point were his wife wanted to manage it.  It was time for me to re-focus on designing my own collection again.

What do you think of so-called "celebrity" jewelers and celebrities who put their names on jewelry collections?

 

I think celebrities have to make their money selling their souls. That is their business.  Unfortunately the general public knows so little that the media, PR firms and advertising world can lead them to some rather miserable jewelry endorsed by celebrities.

What is your impression of this latest bit of ground-breaking research conducted by the Oxygen Network?

 

If you ask a woman if she would rather have a television where the family can all get together, I think she will choose that over another piece of diamond jewelry.  If, however, you ask a woman if she would ever give up the wonderful diamond ring that was given to her by her husband while they were on vacation in Paris for their 10th wedding anniversary, she would fight you tooth and nail.

 

Do you have any advice for fledgling young jewelers?

 

My advice is do not do it in the United States.  Move to China, Bali or India where the labor costs are much lower.  Jewelry is such a labor intensive endeavor that it has become too difficult to do here today.  I am fortunate I started when things were different and I am now working with a multi-million dollar inventory that is out in stores around the United States and Europe.

 

Many of my readers are eco-conscious and very informed and interested in the topics of sustainable resources.  There is one reader/friend in particular who just completed her benchwork courses at the Revere Academy, and I know she'll appreciate your perspective.

To that end, what is your opinion of the "No Dirty Gold" campaign?

That is a tough one.  I believe it takes careful thought.  To me it is much the same as whether one choose to be a vegetarian or eat the meat of animals.

First of all, I consider the world we live in to be very special.  I believe it is best to leave the place we occupy a better place after we have passed through it.  It is our world and we better take care of it.  The act of extracting the raw materials from the ground to create jewelry is very detrimental to the environment.  There are tons of earth mined for each ounce of gold or carat of diamond rough.  The mining is not something we should take lightly.

On a positive note we in the jewelry industry have been leaders in recycling for centuries.  Very little of the gold that has been mine through history is not still in use today.  The ring that I made yesterday may well have been made from gold worn by several women throughout history.

I met a very nice man at the JCK show who only use eco-friendly recycled gold.  A nice thought, however there was a day when that gold was actually dug from the ground.  It just seems to me to be hard to know how and where the gold I use was mined.  To me the important part is to make beautiful jewelry that will have special meaning to someone. Something that they will be able to wear for the rest of their lives.

I am most concerned with the preponderance of disposable jewelry being made today.  People go to the mall buying stuff to satisfy a need to consume. Just imagine the average piece of gold jewelry sold last year in the USA was less that $70.00.

And what about the push for consumers to avoid the "conflict diamonds" and for that matter, even all diamonds no matter what?

Diamonds are a slightly different issue.  Here are a few points I would like to make:

 

1.  The color treatment of off-white diamonds allows the jewelry industry to use diamonds that in the past have been used for industrial purposes.  In this way the we are better using the diamonds that have been mined from the huge holes in the ground.

2.  Synthetic diamonds are beginning to come on the market.  Gemesis and other high tech companies are making beautiful colored diamonds in laboratories.  For every diamond that is man made a mined diamond will not need to be extracted from the ground.

3.  Thousands of African men make a good living working in the diamond mines, hundreds of thousands of Indians make a dependable living cutting diamonds.  Millions of people around the world are involved in the sale of diamonds.  If we were to eliminate diamonds from the economy it would certainly change the lives of many many people.

4.  In regards to conflict diamonds it seems to me there are always two sides to any argument.  The guys that want to control the mines say rebels are stealing diamonds are hurting the country and the government.  The rebels who do not have the power say that the corrupt government officials are using the money from the diamonds to support the illegal oppressive government.  Both have good and bad points. Unfortunately many people are being killed in the fight for the wealth that diamonds could have brought them.  The same problem exists for other commodities such as oil, copper, forestry products, etc.

Is Pamela Anderson "like a modern-day Brigitte Bardot?"

 

Pamela Anderson may be the modern-day Brigitte Bardot, however I am much more interested in finding the modern-day Sophia Loren.

Touché!

If you were to give Mrs. Perret a gift today, what would she want?

 

My nearly perfect wife Connie has two rings that she wears every day.  The ring I made when I first met her and her wedding ring.  She wants no more.

The perfect gift for her is a weekend in our home on the coast of Maine with her children and grandchildren.

It is funny how when you spend your life making things they lose their meaning and it is other values that become important.



(all photos property of Etienne Perret, and used with his permission)

Comments

[Wendy]

Insights galore! I'm impressed on several levels.

Thanks very much for bringing this to us Susanna, and to Mr. Perret for being the premier paragon, and for discussing such a wide range of topics.

(I'm so glad Mr. Perret hasn't been corrupted like the powers that be at Chopard!)

Susanna, you and I have discussed from time to time the 3 R's of jewellery, so I cannot tell you how pleased I was to read a designer of Mr. Perret's calibre discussing them (and the vagaries of cheap jewellery).

I hope people will be able to take the time to to follow the links, and that the technically inclined will find Michael Good's finesse with anticlastic raising to be as wondrous as Mr. Perret's pieces.

[kim]

Great interview! Oh, how I wish I could wear rose gold--it's PINK for goodness sake! But it does not look good on my skin tone :( That was awesome. What a nice guy and smart, too! Talented, of course.

[Ronna]

Thank you Etienne for enlightening us about recycling gold and the pros and cons of sales of diamonds.

[henri-v]

Aaaahhh! I finally got to read this! Fantastic reading, and I love that you asked pointed questions about the environmental aspects of fine jewelry production. Mr. Perret had thoughtful responses to those issues; I find myself reaching more of a middle-ground as I learn more and become more involved in the industry. There is a positive human element to the diamond business that counters the nasty image that gets the most publicity. I am slowly finding a way to harmonize "ick" feelings with the good ones ... and I realize that nothing is black or white.

(And I support the rose gold revival, too.)