Studio Visit: Caroline Ellen

The Peridot Girls enjoyed a unique opportunity to visit Caroline Ellen in her studio last week. The heartbeat of Peridot has always been the love we have for our designers, and as new team members it’s integral to our role to get to know the talent, swoon over the work, and appreciate their creative process and highly skilled techniques. Learn, swoon and appreciate we did, melting alloys (pure copper, silver and gold) with a hand torch, pressing molten metal into ingots, and pulling them into wire. To say these ancient gold-smithing methods are labor intensive is the understatement of the modern world. But Caroline wouldn’t have it any other way, “I’d rather make each piece flawlessly than concentrate on volume,” she professed. Now, we understand so much more about her precise, Virgo nature, which insists on perfectly cut diamonds of the highest grades, and rare gemstones worthy of heirloom and collectors items. We’re talking about you, Sleeping Beauty Turquoise and Ethiopian Opal. Also important to note, we felt like quite the star guests upon entering Caroline’s world. Greeted with chocolate chip cookies the size of scones and sour cream coffee cake, locally pressed juice and fresh cut hydrangeas, I think it’s safe to say we will all be coming up with reasons to pop by our much adored host again soon. Not to mention, the royal blue velvet and grosgrain jewelry rolls (finished with vintage Charvet knot cufflink closures) that neatly display her treasured samples, further demonstrate that no detail has gone unnoticed. Imagine the level of care she puts into her work.