Ring in gold and silver with a quartz stone incrusted with black tourmaline

“L’ivresse du Printemps” is a pretty title for a jewelry exhibition and when I met Juliette Polac, the talented designer who has been showing at Naïla de Montbrison‘s gallery forever, I immediately felt happy. She and her daughter Angela Fabre, an actress, discovered the show with me on the morning of the opening. And they were very excited and charming. 

Juliette Polac and daughter Angela Fabre at the gallery

The theme of the show is of a “Walk in an imaginary garden”, with golden leaves and silver branches, ginkgo and waterlilies, seeds from the rudraksha tree (the same that Gandhi liked to sit under to meditate) and cherry trees. Juliette Polac also uses floated wood that she picks on the beaches of Greece and she later sets with silver. Her workshop is in Athens, where she met Angela’s father thirty years ago and she remained there since. She lived on the island of Crete for a long time before moving there in 2000.

Gold chain with seeds from Guyana

What I liked best in the show besides her lovely earrings in cristal and silver, are her rings with a quartz incrusted with black tourmaline. The stone has a strange yet natural look and immediately caught my curiosity. She buys them on specialized websites or at gem fairs and has made it a signature stone.

Earrings with gold gingko leaves

Jade and gold earrings

One can see in her creations the poetry and happiness that she exudes in real life.

The daughter of a brilliant journalist and writer, Michel Polac, Juliette has studied the art of jewelry with Gilles Royaux and further enhanced her technique with a Greek jeweler in Crete. She sets all the stones by hand herself. The prices are very reasonable between 750 and 3000€ and you get happiness on top.

Mobile flower ring in gold and silver

Until April 7 at Galerie Naïla de Montbrison, 6 rue de Bourgogne and at the Benaki Museum in Athens.