On the alchemical roots of adornment 

In conversation with Paris-based jewellery maker 

Gaspard Hex on the spiritual dimension of material design

For a long time, I’ve wanted to enter Arthur Rimbaud’s splendid cities. He spoke to them in a poem he once wrote, roughly translated as places we’d travel to in the dawn, armed with a burning patience. There’s no way of knowing the shape these landscapes took in the late French poet’s mind, or way of determining their precise composition. Even so, I sometimes dream of crossing the thresholds of their non-existent edges, of standing between their imaginary buildings in towering invisible shadows. There, it’s always Autumn, birds fly uninterrupted; lovers speak in silence. 

The work of Gaspard Hex is crafted from the same magic that Rimbaud’s splendid cities are made of. From his Paris-based atelier, the French jewellery maker transcends the practical parameters of craftsmanship, conjuring concepts that seem to be born from the depths of divine dimensions. Inspired by mythology and fuelled by his impenetrable futuristic spirit, Hex produces pieces that could easily be described as reflections of the death and destruction of nature somehow in simultaneous conversation with its eternal rebirth. Far more than physical wearable objects, Hex’s pieces appear to be universes unto themselves, anchoring their wearers to the greater cosmos as they ground themselves in journeys that must be taken Earthside. Following his intuition and surrendering to the process, Hex creates jewels that, much like traditional totems, serve a higher purpose, reconnecting us to spirit and, perhaps most crucially, returning us to ourselves.

KATHRYN CARTER: Where were you born and raised? 

GASPARD HEX: I was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil, because my father was working there at the time. I spent two years there and was then raised in the fancy neighbourhood of St Germain des Prés, in Paris. There were some good sides about growing up there, such as amazing access to culture, and having great teachers in the public high school I attended. But overall I felt so much narrow-mindedness, pretension, and a lack of unconditional love from that so-called elite. There was so little meaning in their lives, it made me want to leave as soon as I could. So as a teenager I spent some time searching for myself in the more open districts of Camden Town in London and Kreuzberg in Berlin. 

After that more rebellious period I made peace in my heart with Paris, came back, moved neighbourhoods, and [eventually] realised that harmony can be found in every city, depending on how you choose to navigate through it. I still believe Paris can be a tough city, with a very negative vibe, but I’ve found my own way through it and it doesn’t affect me anymore.

KC: Our environments most certainly are what we make them, I agree. Perspective is everything. It sounds as though you would have been exposed to a lot of pomp and finery as a child, what is your earliest memory of noticing somebody’s jewellery?

GH: The story is quite funny, actually. I was a teenager searching myself in the art field, a singer in a progressive rock band (amongst other things), and one day I noticed an outstanding black plexiglass collar that I believed would be great to wear on stage in a couture boutique right next door to where I lived So I entered the boutique to ask who made the collar, and the designer—jewellery artist Alina Alamorean—was actually in the store; she showed me her whole universe. It was the first time that I realised how expressive jewellery could be. I then became friends with Alina, and our relationship is one of the reasons why I launched this jewellery brand.

KC: What a beautifully serendipitous encounter. Tell me more about what inspired you to launch your own brand?

GH: When I returned to Paris from Berlin in 2011 I was unable to find a clear expression of myself in the music I was making at the time, I was a bit stuck in my creative process. So, Alina encouraged me to start a jewellery class in April of that same year. So I went along to the classes of traditional jeweller, Marc Lauer, for two days every week, to learn the techniques of the craft. Lauer’s open-mindedness and the respect he showed me when I refused to follow the rules, as well as the encouragement he gave me to find my own techniques, helped me to find my own style very fast. It was in those classes that I transposed the universe that I had developed in other fields onto the jewellery medium. After three months of classes I had some of my more sculptural pieces exhibited in the renowned Galerie BSL. I love their orientation, always presenting a forward thinking look on nature. I am so grateful to have had this chance.

KC: What a wonderful opportunity it would have been to learn from such a skilled artisan, and in such a hands-on way, straight from the studio. As an established artisan in your own right, where is your atelier now located?

GH: My atelier is in the 11th Arrondissement, on rue Merlin. It is a friendly neighbourhood where people actually smile on the streets and care for each other. Yes, this still exists in Paris. There is a nice quiet park nearby, as well as the Père Lachaise Cemetery that runs very deep through beneath the ground, infusing centuries of esotericism into the area. 

KC: Seems the ideal energetic environment for the work that you do, specifically, allowing you a constant connection to both the earthly and spiritual realms. Speaking to the significance of surroundings and their influence on us as creators, in a universe where post-industrial ruins and primordial nature fuse together, you say you work on matter with your own techniques. Have your skills as an artisan developed via an organic process of self-learning?

GH: Well, there are two sides to this answer. When it comes to design, I am quite free, I often experiment and don’t try to control everything, as I have the humility to sometimes just let things happen. I also let some projects mature for years, and rediscover them with a new eye long after their beginnings. Sometimes I see myself as a farmer, letting things grow on their own and then harvesting the fruits only when they are ready. But when it comes to craft techniques, I am more disciplined. When I was younger I had the chance to share a studio with a lot of retired craftsmen and learned many of my skills from them. As a creator I take care with the quality of my pieces as I believe that with craft, as with life, we are what we make and we make what we are. That is why I am always trying to find ways of improving, and will always believe that the inside of the ring should always be very well polished. 

KC: It sounds as though you’ve spent a lot of time in the company of other creators, from Alina Alamorean to Marc Lauer and the craftsmen you shared your old studio with. The universe has clearly been guiding you down this path, but was there something in your own core that inspired you to become a jewellery maker?

GH: Well, what a very metaphysical question! I always wanted to be a musician but somehow, at that time, it just wasn’t working out for me. So in the end I surrendered, only to discover all these treasures I wouldn’t have seen if I hadn’t broadened my perspective. Today, what do I like about being a jewellery maker? Being independent, being able to work for people on custom projects, and the good balance between spiritual and material work. And the fact that my works are worn and carried by their owners, so that the spaces where they are experienced are not just walls in museums, but human bodies in the world.

KC: Speaking to this sense of independence you feel as you work, and your coming to your path via the action of surrender, Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Carl Gustav Jung once said: Your visions will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes. Once they are created, your pieces are indeed worn by others in the outside world, but they each begin with your vision. To what degree does your practice involve investing in, and fostering, a constant connection with your inner self?

GH: I love this question; it is so good to talk about this constant connection. I believe that one of the biggest challenges we face today is to achieve a holistic vision, and to realise how everything is interconnected, and that each of our decisions affects the whole. As for my own practice, I haven’t spoken about it a lot yet but I am deeply involved in the practices of kundalini yoga and meditation; these modalities provide me with the tools I need to maintain and refine this connexion between individual and universal consciousness. The word yoga means union; it helps me to not only dream of change but to actually make the change happen. And for sure craft can be a meditation and a way to find this connection as well. And as we are, in this lovely moment, speaking to the philosophies of Jung, he once said—in his book Psychology and Alchemy—that the work of the alchemist represented certainly a serious effort to penetrate the nature of chemical transformations, while at the same time—and often in dominant proportion—the reproduction of a psychic process, happening in parallel. 

KC: So beautifully put, his words definitely speak to the ways in which we each communicate and decode our own metaphysical experiences via material means, illustrating how our own hands are often guided by higher realms. To the point of the often-unexplored depths of adornment and design, historians have discovered that Ancient Egyptians once wore certain crystals, gems and stones for the purpose of healing and protection. It is said that chrysolite, for example, was used to fight off nightmares and purge evil spirits. Do you ever consider the more spiritual properties of the materials you work with, as you design your pieces?

GH: Yes, and I love the fact that we have now started to look more seriously into the sacred science and art of the Egyptians, there is so much we can learn from it! So, to some extent, I do consider these spiritual properties. Lately, I have been working a lot with black tourmaline, which is grounding and acts as a filter of negative energies. Labradorites, too, act like filters. I see Quartz and Diamonds as pure energy activators. And I like the feminine, watery energy of pearls. I also connect the colours of stones to the chakras and believe that the deep colours and shines we find in gems deeply affect those who wear them. 

I would, however, like to add that all of these properties are activated by the consciousness of the wearer. Therefore, I believe that a simple tree branch used with love and consciousness to serve the greater good can embody more power than a 24k gold piece paved with diamonds that is not worn consciously, or that is in some way misused to serve one’s own desires. For sure using gold and gems to heal, activate consciousness and bring balance would be ideal, but for now not everyone can afford this, and people that can don’t always have these objectives in mind.. Sad for them, really.

KC: I agree wholeheartedly, I feel that so much of the power of things—whether a diamond ring or a fallen branch, or a simple glass of water—works in symbiosis with our own energetic vibration. Your words on the power of our consciousness to either bless or condemn materials reminds me of something Albert Einstein once said: Everything is energy and that's all there is to it. Match the frequency of the reality you want and you cannot help but get that reality. It can be no other way. As well as working to raise your own consciousness, you’ve also confessed in the past that your desire is to share the spirituality of nature, something that you feel has been forgotten today; a force that is waiting to be unearthed again. How do you maintain your own connection to nature?

GH: This potentiality of nature lies deep inside of each one of us, like a seed waiting for the water of consciousness to grow. Living in a big city is not the best way to be connected to the deep wisdom of the divine mother, but I am fortunate enough to live just a five minute walk to an actual forest, the only forest (not park) to be found in an urban area in this region. So I go there quite often to recharge myself, and it is here that I tend to contemplate nature itself, its codes and expressions. I do this everywhere I can, actually, even back in the city—while chopping vegetables, watching candles and incense dance; the sun rising and the moon reflecting its light.

KC: It sounds as though you’ve mastered the true art of meditation, it’s a beautiful thing to be able to infuse everything you do—big or small—with this level of awareness. Reminds me of the Zen teaching: Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. On the point of your connection to the world around you, tell me about the materials you most like to work with?

GH: I like sterling silver, it’s the most reflective metal on earth. I like the contrast I can obtain, from the depth of oxidation to the shine of reflective and polished surfaces. Gold is also very enjoyable to work with, it is very vibrant, only the price point of the pieces increases a lot when I work with gold, and I like my work to remain accessible. But I like working with any material, basically. There is always a possibility to make something great out of anything.

KC: Indeed. Perhaps a reflection of your love for contrasting features and finishes, your pieces embody both masculine and feminine energy in almost-equal measure, the contradictions in their designs somehow adding to their cohesion. Is it always a conscious decision to infuse your pieces with these opposing, and yet complementary, forces?

GH: Thank you for saying that, it is true that I am looking for balance and harmony. In my work I seek to find that path that is transcending duality and opposition, where everything becomes one; to build something stable that is nourished by the energy generated from opposing yet complementary forces. To what extent this is a solely conscious choice, I do not know. I think there is also a balance to find between having an idea that is full of concepts and also letting go to feel what the heart is telling us, too. 

KC: So true, the eternal oscillation of any creative process, really, entails the balance between remaining grounded and allowing oneself to surrender and soar into alternate dimensions. On the note of transcending the material plane in a bid to give into one’s emotional and astral bodies, it could be said that each of your pieces is a shard of the cosmos itself, appearing to stand as a universe of its own. Is it your hope that each item of jewellery you craft will somehow remind the wearer of their unbreakable connection to Earth and spirit?

GH: I think my hope is to remind people more of their unbreakable connection to the whole of what is, and what could be beyond, maybe. I feel this could be said about anything. It is only a matter of being conscious of it or not. Goethe once said that if you look long and carefully enough at a single stone, then you can understand the secrets of the entire universe. Your formulation and understanding [of my work] is beautiful, by the way. It is true that I infuse these ideas into the pieces. If it does indeed remind the wearer of his or her connection to the whole? That would be a beautiful thing.

KC: It is lovely to hear you recite these words by German writer and statesman Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who was perhaps most well known for his treatises on botany, anatomy, and colour. Goethe also once said that the soul that sees beauty may sometimes walk alone. As you wander your own (physical) world,  where do you find yourself taking most of your visual cues?

GH: To be honest, I don’t know. I feel that anything can be inspiring when seen through the lens of the proper perspective. With that said, I am constantly inspired by ancient wisdom, nature, mystical traditions, archetypal figures, and simple shapes.

KC: And do you feel as though your style is imbued by influences taken not only from physical, but also spiritual realms?

GH: For sure. I try to have a holistic approach of the world. I don’t think we can really separate matter from spirit. Spirit is always present; dormant or awake.

KC: I agree completely, some say that the body has a spirit, but in many ways I feel you could also say that it is the spirit that has a body, and it is that body that allows us to live our purpose while we’re here on Earth. To create something material—whether a painting, poem, or pendant—is often (nowadays at least) a gesture of this purposeful (and/or regrettably pretentious) self-expression, but in a world that has long been saturated by the influence of industrialisation, do you feel a part of your responsibility as an artist is also to communicate (as a quasi-channel) the voice of nature?

GH: I don’t know how much I believe in the idea of the artist’s purpose being to only express himself. Maybe it is. But I would be more likely to listen to the words of Bruce Nauman, who once said that the true artist helps the world by revealing the mystic truth, even though those two visions—expressing oneself and revealing the mystic truth—can be compatible and one and the same, at times.  I am not particularly fond of this era of the artist expressing himself to the point where he becomes more important than his work. It’s something that I feel changed during the Renaissance, which is the period in which we started to see the concept of the artist-as-star. In the Middle Ages, contrarily, the artists would often not even sign their work; they had the humility to serve a purpose that was greater than themselves. I believe it is important that the work stays more important than the artist behind it, and that artists and craftsmen alike can create art as a response to [and rejection of] the over-industrialised world. Where industry has caused us to lose sense of life, artists reintroduce love, spirit and meaning. There is something more human and alive in what they are doing; industry is mostly infused with suffering and numbness. Let’s re-enchant the world! 

KC: To the point of re-enchanting the world and reacquainting each of us with spirit, and how that may be achieved, do you ever design with the wearer in mind, or is it more about allowing the piece you’re working on to evolve into its own being, to tell its own story—one that may be separate to the story of the individual who wears it?

GH: In my first years I did not think about the wearer much, I was more focused on self-expression and would make very heavy and not very practical items. In time I’ve realised that if I do this work, it’s not for me, but for others. So a few years ago I started to make lighter-weight pieces, items that are easy to wear while still infused with the same spirit. 

KC: And do you ever wonder how an individual will feel—in their body, mind and spirit—wearing your jewellery as you are involved in the process of creating?

GH: Yes! I’ve been designing and crafting more bespoke pieces in collaboration with customers, and these interactions have given a new dimension to my work. To realise other people’s dreams, while adding some of my own spirit in the process, makes even more sense to me. I like to think about the person when I am crafting the piece, to establish a connection between the wearer, the love I contribute to the work, and the end product itself. 

KC: It’s beautiful to hear that you work with such intention, I feel this is evident in your work, it’s almost as though you can tell that each piece has a story. You’ve said in the past that you are inspired by several antique mythologies, stories that are infused into your pieces and animated with a futurist spirit. What is it about mythology that inspires you most?

GH: I want to start with this sentence by the French Poet and Artist Jean Cocteau : I've always preferred mythology to history. History is truth that becomes an illusion. Mythology is an illusion that becomes reality.

Mythology is not only made up of very nice stories full of phantasmagoric details—though this aspect is very enjoyable. Mythology is also not only the explanation of natural phenomena via allegorical representation, even though this aspect has helped many to understand the world. To me, mythology is the way that the world talks about itself. There’s something expressed from within the myth that relates to the depth of life’s mysteries; something that resonates with the profoundly symbolic part of the human psyche that can be expressed in no other way. Myth has an abstract value in itself, much like mathematics and music. This is what really drives me to love mythology. It tells me about the deep truths of the world. If this is something that is interesting to you, I really recommend Jung and Kerenyi’s book, Introduction to the Essence of Mythology.

KC: An excellent recommendation, it was after all Jung himself who once said that myth is more individual, expressing life more precisely than does science. Nights through dreams tell the myths forgotten by the day, were his exact words I believe. Aside from mining the mythological archives of time, so to speak, we as artists also often sieve our creations through the filters of our own feeling bodies. French poet Arthur Rimbaud once said that alchemy lies in this formula: ‘Your memory and your senses are but the nourishment of your creative impulse’. To what degree do you own memories and senses inspire your instinct?

GH: It’s so good to hear you speak about Rimbaud! His work has had such a deep influence on me. There was a period in my late adolescence where, instead of carrying an mp3 player on me, I read Les Illuminations over and over again, almost as though it was music. On this quote in particular, I’m not sure I understand the full meaning right now, but for sure I believe that sensitivity—the ability to refine the senses and develop one’s own experience of the world—opens many doors. To his point on memories, I do not know. I feel what is important is to keep the memory of intense experiences—human, artistic, spiritual and so on—as flames that are always lit in our hearts. The memory of how these experiences felt, so that we can live with these feelings of our divine essence all of the time, even in the most ordinary of situations.

KC: Very true, Rimbaud’s poetry has had a deep influence on me, also. What, if anything, do you hope to inspire in others as an artist?

GH: I don’t know...I try to live by my true identity, without expectations; to simply see what’s coming towards me and compose with it. We get inspired by what we are ready to integrate as the next step of our personal evolution; I feel this is an endless process. If some of my expressions can help others to find their own paths, to evolve and become who they are, then it’s a good thing ! 

KC: Absolutely, I think one’s dedication to honouring their own truth has a way of touching the people it’s meant to, in divine timing. In times of creative uncertainty, what do you do to recharge your imagination?

GH: I am fortunate in that I do not have these times of creative uncertainty, maybe because I meditate daily and try to keep a constant connection with the divine, and to see God in all. I also allow free space inside of me, and ensure I am not always overstimulated—one cannot fill a bottle that is already full. I am trusting of life and of what it may bring me, which allows me to let go, to not make too many plans. As Rimbaud himself once wrote: Je finis par trouver sacré le désordre de mon esprit. ‘I ended by finding sacred the disorder of my mind.’

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All of Gaspard Hex's pieces are handcrafted by the designer in le Marais, Paris. If you are interesting in having a custom piece made, you can contact Gaspard via his website or get in touch with him direct at gaspard.hex@gmail.com