A bench, TWO HANDS,and a very long MEMORY.
Aurenne is one workshop in Clerkenwell with three people in it. We do not carry stock, we do not run seasons, and we have never made the same piece twice. Everything below is why.
I wanted to make fewer things, properly.
I trained on repairs, which is the only way to learn what actually fails. Ten years of re-tipping worn claws and re-shanking rings that had been made too thin to save money taught me what a piece needs to survive a life. When I opened Aurenne I decided we would make a tenth as much and build all of it like it had to come back to me in thirty years — because it will, and I would rather be proud of it then.
What we hold to
- I
Slowness
We take a limited number of commissions a year and finish each one before the next begins. It is the only reason the work holds up, and the only thing we will not negotiate on.
- II
Provenance
Every gram of metal we buy is recycled and every stone is traceable to a named supplier. Where we cannot establish a chain we do not buy the stone, however good it is.
- III
Repair
Everything we make comes back to us for free, for as long as it exists. A workshop that will not repair its own work has told you what it thinks of it.
Where the NAMEcomes from.
Au is the symbol for gold, and the rest of the word is just the sound we wanted around it. The maker’s mark struck inside every Aurenne piece is the same two letters, cut square, small enough to sit inside a two-millimetre band and deep enough to still be legible after a lifetime of polishing. It is the last thing that happens to a piece before it goes into its box.
Come and see the BENCH.
We are on the second floor of a converted workshop building in Clerkenwell, five minutes from Farringdon. Visits are by appointment so that whoever is making your piece is free to sit with you — Tuesday to Saturday, usually an hour.
Aurenne Atelier24 Hallam Court, Clerkenwell, London EC1+44 (0)20 0000 0000atelier@aurenne.example