About

– Each creation has a story behind –

“The moment the design glimpses in the mind, the tool touches the metal or the stones find each other, are my favourite steps in the making process. All my creations emerge from a sensation, an overlooked detail, a distant memory, a poetic text or the material itself, becoming
the starting point for sculpting a design with a story.”

When I discovered silversmithing and jewellery making at the Jewellery School in Birmingham in 2006, I was mesmerised by the ‘magic’ of metal transformation, and its almost endless possibilities. I like the toughness of the material and at the same time the fact that I can soften it and melt it. You need strength to work with it and your hands get dirty with silver and gold dust on your fingers.

My training in archaeology and my fascination for art and crafts has inspired me to learn to play with metals and to combine different materials. I infuse my work with texture effects, shape imbalance, subtle or contrasting colour arrangements to achieve a special kind of depth and intensity to my creations. I imagine and design pieces of jewellery with a focus on small evocative and sensitive details, as well as sculptural pieces of wearable art that stand out on the body. I also thrive from working intuitively, allowing my ideas to flow from my feelings, in a search to create little poetic keepsakes. They are like messages or poems to wear, or to offer to someone.

Each piece of jewellery is designed and handcrafted by me from my home studio in Oxfordshire, using saw piercing, hammering, engraving, soldering, hand forging, stone-setting, combining recycled metals (sterling silver and 9ct gold) and semi-precious and precious stones. I am especially drawn to stones that change shade and colour as they move or the light shifts: hints of pink shining in behind the surface of a blue opal, a silky garnet that becomes red or pink, hazy moonstone or gold glistening on a lapis lazuli.

The ‘Echoes of the Past’ Collection is inspired by my archaeological work on the Greek Bronze Age site of Mycenae. The palace cited in Homer’s Iliad, holds visions of mythological tales and buried treasures. I imagine vibrations of ancient cities, remains of gold tiaras, and earthenware crumbles reaching the metal surface. Fascinated by the worn, rough, pitted and crackled aspects of ancient artefacts, I like to play with different texture effects and to distort the metal, as a mean to bring out the preciousness of imperfections, the magic of small objects, and to re-invent ancient forgotten treasures.

Echoes of the Past Collection

Fly Away Collection

My ‘Fly Away’ Collection draws on the elegance of Art Nouveau designs, with its strong curved lines and obsession for myriad of wings, birds and feathers. Influenced by my Art History studies in Paris, and by calligraphy writing, I use intricate saw-piercing and engraving to create dramatic lines and flowing shapes. I like to play with the space in between, with shadows and with the way the piece can envelop the body and become part of it. I re-interpret the floating sensations of wings and feathers as symbolism to convey the idea of strength, movement and freedom. They become amulets, lucky charm or talisman: metaphors for taking opportunities, following our dreams.

Echoing from fleeting impressions left when we find ourselves in a foreign land, my ‘Travel Diary’ Collection combines asymmetrical shapes, texture and unusual cuts and colours of stones. The choice of unconventional materials and shapes is directly related to emotions we feel: the difference in the density of the air, in the shimmering of the light, in the scent flowing through the pores of our skin, in the glowing of surfaces, in the inviting sounds and colours. The jewellery is woven into a landscape of meandering paths, mesmerizing colours, and dream-like structures.

Travel Diary Collection

Jewellery Exhibition Catalogue

Chloe Romanos

I am a jewellery artist and goldsmith, originally from the south of France, now living in Oxfordshire (UK).

As a child I wanted to be an archaeologist, discovering amazing forgotten treasures, and at the same time I was dreaming of becoming an artist. I wanted to find a different way to express emotions and to communicate ideas and feelings using the body, rather than words, as an interconnexion between us and the world.

I discovered art, as a child, through learning a wide range of artistic techniques while studying at ‘Les Ateliers de la Castellane’, a collective of European artists and crafters in the south of France. My interest in ancient techniques, art movements and the act of creativity developed during my Degree and Master in Art History and Archaeology, in Paris, at Sorbonne University.

I moved to England to complete a PhD in Archaeology, specialising in the study of material culture and fabrication techniques as mean to question our understanding of population migration in Late Bronze Age Greece. It led me to focus on how we define identity through creativity.

I decided that I wanted to learn an ancient craft: use similar techniques and tools, and actually experience what I had been studying. So along side my PhD, I trained as a jeweller. I study jewellery techniques and designing as well as silversmithing at the prestigious Jewellery School in Birmingham, where I found my ‘voice’, my favourite medium of communication.

I also lived in Athens (Greece), where I learnt to use non-precious materials and surface texture effects, at ‘Anamma’ Art Jewellery school, and started my journey into the world of ‘Art Jewellery’ : a more thought-provoking, conceptual and philosophical approach to the world of jewellery.

My work has been showcased at the British Museum (London), the Royal Cornwall Museum (Truro), the Heritage Craft Centre (Coleshill, Oxfordshire), Oxfordshire Museum (Woodstock), Discover Bucks Museum (Aylesbury) and in several exhibitions in Oxford. I am a member of the Oxfordshire Craft Guild, West OX Arts and Faringdon Art Society. I take part in Oxfordshire Artweeks Festival and Bucks Artweeks Festival.

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Les créations de *Cloelea* sont des bijoux entièrement fait main et remplis d’histoires et d’émotions. Il y a toujours une histoire derrière un bijou!

Chaque pièce est réalisée à la main en utilisant les techniques traditionnelles de la joaillerie. Je travaille principalement l’argent et l’or et j’aime beaucoup utiliser les pierres précieuses. Il m’arrive aussi de travailler avec des matières que l’on ne s’attend pas à voir dans un bijou (caillou intéressant, coquillage, plumes, morceau de bois…) ; parce que pour moi ce n’est pas vraiment la matière utilisée qui rend l’objet précieux et unique, c’est la signification qu’il prend pour celui qui l’offre ou le porte.

Je modèle le métal telle une alchimiste pour créer des bijoux vibrant de poésie, puisant mon inspiration dans l’art, les collections archéologiques, et les divers pays où j’ai voyagé (Grèce, Thaïlande, Inde, Malaisie, Bornéo, Egypte…). J’aime que mes créations aient une histoire à elles et j’aime aussi que cette histoire se transforme et change quand elles appartiennent à quelqu’un d’autre.

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