Ophélie Hilbert - Precious Collective
Ophélie Hilbert
Designer biography:
Anchored in the field of contemporary jewellery, Ophelie's work resists conventional categorisations & reclaims the object as a space for narrative & critical inquiry. She cultivates an approach that merges technical experimentation with conceptual depth, often working through the oxymorons that define both material states and social structures. Her research embraces metal not as a fixed medium, but as a living vocabulary, subject to transformation, tension & rupture. Through casting, fusion & the use of responsive elements such as magnetism, she explores the fragility of form, authorship & transmission. At the heart of her work lies a reflection on intergenerational memory, social bonds & the intimate architectures we build to hold them.
Collection concept:
Arising from ongoing investigation into the instability of materials & tension between precision & unpredictability. Through fusion of silver, iron & titanium, the pieces stage a confrontation between structure & transformation, between the solid & the volatile. Magnetism intervenes in certain objects: magnets activate iron filings that remain in perpetual motion, making the jewellery a site of gesture, flux & instability. Elsewhere, molten iron disrupts the formality of carefully constructed frameworks, asserting itself where one would expect ornament, thereby challenging traditional codes of value & refinement. Underlying material tensions are deeper themes animating the practice, questions of transmission, legacy & fragile human connection.
