Meet Vincent Michel, a young jeweler from the heart of Lausanne, who breathes poetry and elegance into each of his creations.
Enthusiastically
Fulfilling your childhood dream is not given to everyone. This is the case of Vincent Michel, a talented jeweler, who fell in love with jewelry at the age of twelve. “While one day I was accompanying my mother to a jeweler, I was amazed to discover this profession, the stones and also the tools used: blowtorches, files, pliers, etc. Vincent Michel recalled. Then he did some apprenticeships with this same jeweler during his adolescence and created His workbench is in the back of the parents’ garage.” My dad always encouraged me in my craft. My family has a tradition in the handicraft trade, with a cabinet-maker grandfather and a mother who paints a lot, ”confess Vincent Michel. At fifteen, he made up his mind: he would be a goldsmith. He entered the CFC technical school in Vallée de Joux, department of jewelry. At the end of his four-year apprenticeship , won the Swiss Jeweler’s Championship. One who had hesitated, for some time, about a career as a volcanologist, was decidedly good. “In the end, there was a real connection between these two professions: the same love for stones and fire,” Vincent Michel asserts mischievously.
Poetic and elegant creations
At the end of his training, when he was to be assigned to a large company in the canton, the economic crisis of 2008 hit the companies hard. Never mind, Vincent Michel decided to start his own business. For several years he shared a workshop with two artisan jewelers before opening his own shop in central Lausanne in 2016. In 2020 he moved again to settle a few more streets, at 47-49 rue de Towne. “Here there is more space and a better place. But above all, the workshop is visible to the customers of the shop. It is necessary for me to show how I work, how my jewelry is made,” explains Vincent Michel, for whom direct communication with customers is a great source of satisfaction. The shop (necklaces, rings, bracelets, earrings) are handmade. If the jeweler offers tailor-made creations (especially for wedding rings), he also develops many collections where gold and the most noble stones are included. We fell in love with the Cathedral collection in particular, Inspired by the rose stained-glass window of Friborg’s Gothic cathedral, white, yellow or rose gold blends elegance and poetry with diamonds or enchanting blue and green sapphires.
traditional fine jewelry
If Vincent Michel has been trained in the latest jewelry technologies (computer painting and 3D printing in particular), his interest is above all artisanal and ancestral techniques. Besides the collections she offers, she develops a collection of fine jewelry: a few unique pieces that require advanced technical skills and 20 to 300 hours of work depending on the piece of jewelry. These are real miniature works of art, exquisite treasures like this ring in rose and yellow gold with oval pink spinels or this other ring in white gold with emeralds, symbolizing the flight of a bee. We also fell in love with these rose gold earrings set with tourmalines, diamonds, and orange sapphires, inspired by the fireworks of a summer evening. “With these pieces of fine jewelry I let my originality and sensibility best express itself. There are such feelings in working in contact with these extraordinary stones,” concludes Vincent Michel, whose creativity seems to be limitless, and one that I strive to convey from through my creations.
