Swiss jewellery designer Sophie Hanagarth teaches at the Ecole Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Strasbourg. She draws her inspiration from folk art, ethnographic museums, chapels, forgotten traditions… Her know-how is steeped in ancient techniques that she reinstates – leather braiding, iron forging – just as she revives discarded materials, such as tinplate.
Her pieces of jewellery with evocative titles, Sein (Breast), 6e doigt (6th finger), Bijoux de famille (Family jewels), double the part of the body on which they are placed. Continuing on the line of anthropomorphism, she has created Traquenards, bracelets with jaws that grip the wrist or Lippes, voracious mouths swallowing the finger, but also Médailles merdeuses, laughing at conventions and good manners. Has this Q du diable, a red braided leather whip, wisely wrapped around the neck, ever been used? It has become an ornament, having forgotten its other possible uses.
