How the Chaînon adventure began

We are Laure-Anne and Tom, two lovers of mountains and of shapes, of objects that carry meaning and good stories. Chaînon was born from a simple idea: to keep a fragment of the relief that mattered always close to you.

Tom grew up hurtling down snowy slopes in winter, while for me it was the cliffs of Brittany that made my head spin.
Either way, the need for wide-open spaces, wild nature and a change of scenery has always been in us.

We both studied design and met in that world, through mutual friends. We trained in jewellery together at the start of the Chaînon adventure, driven by the desire to create objects that mean something.

The Aiguillette des Houches, when summits inspire our rings

It was in the course of a mountain adventure that our wish to keep a fragment of that story always close to us was born. We were the first to feel the need: to capture the beauty of the reliefs that shaped our memories, and turn it into an object worn every day.

Gaining height, widening our horizon. On a hike to the Aiguillette des Houches, the vertigo of the heights took hold of us. Above us, a paraglider was dancing with the warm air currents, embodying the freedom and immensity of the summits.
Each of us finds our strength in this environment: I have more stamina on the way up, Tom is more agile on the way down. Together, we celebrated his birthday at the top, surrounded by a 360° view of steep slopes, facing the majestic Mont Blanc, impressive in its grandeur.

The journey from Paris, by motorbike, had taken us through the valleys of the Morvan, dotted with inns where we met wonderful people. In Moloy, the bar owner shared his memories of Mont Blanc: he had been there twice, twenty years apart, and had seen how fast the glacier was melting.
Such stories strengthen our conviction: it is urgent to preserve the beauty of the mountains, but also to crystallise it another way, in unique rings. Timeless reliefs which, like memories, must stay alive, engraved forever.

Every relief is the relief of a story.

From the relief to the ring

We still had to work out how to turn a mountain into a ring, faithfully. We start from topographic data collected by satellite to model the relief in 3D: we set the scale, the framing and the design of the band. The master is then 3D-printed in our studio.

This master is entrusted to our artisan caster, in the 11th arrondissement of Paris, who turns it into recycled sterling silver. Back at the workshop, in the 20th, we shape the raw piece by hand: filing, sanding, polishing, ultrasonic bath, right up to the desired finish. Our maker’s hallmark finally signs each piece.

The first ring was, naturally, Mont Blanc.

Unmissable and the inspiring protagonist of our hike at Les Houches, it was the subject of our many tests. Since then, we have never stopped refining the rendering of the reliefs, redesigning the band and enriching our range with different models, up to the latest, oval, whose curves soften the ridges of the relief.

Made in Paris, in full transparency

At a time when the origin of jewellery is often unclear, being transparent matters to us. All our rings are designed and made in Paris, between our workshop and our partner caster, in recycled sterling silver. Each one is born from the union of digital design and jewellery craftsmanship.