Sculptor-jeweller revitalizes lost arts

Since creating her first piece of "jewellery as art" for her mother in the 1980s at the age of 16, Dominique Favey Blackmore has made thousands of pieces. Today, her limited run of baroque-style rings, necklaces, earrings and bracelets are worn by celebrities and royalty around the world.

Following in the footsteps of her father, Blackmore studied sculpture at the prestigious école des Beaux-Arts in Paris, with surrealist sculptor Isabelle Waldberg as her mentor. She was still a student when designer Paco Rabanne asked her to contribute to his new haute couture collection – and this proved to be her baptism by fire.

"His sculptor was ill and I stepped in to take his place," she recalls. "I didn't know how to weld, but I worked night and day with my friends from Beaux-Arts and the wager was won. We turned out some incredible pieces."

The collaboration ended up lasting more than 10 years; technically and creatively, each collection represented a new and extreme challenge: "I made Mary Queen of Scots collars, draped pieces and bustiers in metal lace."

During this period, Blackmore also worked with Emanuel Ungaro and Christian Lacroix. The jewellery and adornments she conceived for their fashion shows – as well as for her own creations – combined the subtlety of lost-wax casting with the rough effect of welded metal.