Our Designer
Anne-Marie Chagnon
Immerse yourself in a creative universe bursting with energy and discover a resolutely unique artistic approach.
The art of surprising
Being your true self is remarkable
Multidisciplinary artist endowed with a bountiful imagination and trained at the Fine Arts Faculty of the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQÀM), Anne-Marie Chagnon explores materials instinctively. She invents, shapes and sculpts exclusive pieces, as prevailing as they are timeless. Her conviction: being your true self is remarkable.
Her creations convey that energy which also emanates strongly from the women who wear them. For over twenty years, she has had the passion to create an original collection every year in order to prolong this privileged history of emotions and authenticity with materials and with women.
Indeed, countless peers from the creative circles recognize the depth of her artistic approach and the high-quality expertise, including Le Cirque du Soleil that solicited her to create exclusive and branded jewellery for a decade.
From her first participation at the BIJORHCA PARIS trade show, the artist jewellery was awarded with the Étoile de Mode. In New York, her jewellery was selected by Iris Apfel, style and fashion icon, to be included in the collection of artwork sold at the Peabody Essex Museum - a choice shared by the curators of more than forty prestigious museums in North America. In 2015, following a few multidisciplinary exhibits in Canada and abroad, the artist held her first solo painting exhibit.
Anne-Marie Chagnon jewellery, unique and unparalleled, is created and crafted at the Montreal studio and available across five continents. By placing the quest for authenticity at the heart of her work, she has succeeded in creating a distinctive signature, local yet internationally renowned.
An Artist at Heart
From the days of her youth, creativity was present; Anne-Marie Chagnon drew, wrote poems, sculpted, played of a musical instrument.
Her parents encouraged her, her two sisters and brother to use and give free rein to their imagination, as much in mechanical ways as with freedom of expression.
Jewellery arrived in her life from the moment when, as a young girl, she wanted to wear some. In Grade 5 of elementary school, she was wearing earrings she had welded herself!
Mastering a Unique Craftsmanship
Anne-Marie Chagnon first started to create jewellery destined for sale while she was still enrolled in university, studying visual arts. At the time, she created jewellery in... polymer clay. She sculpted and modeled each piece of jewellery with her own hands, one by one, requiring hundred of hours of work and tremendous application.
Among the art disciplines practiced by Anne-Marie Chagnon, sculpture stands out. Between her university training supervised by masters, the creation of sculpted and sculptural jewellery and her artistic reflection, she develops a unique know-how she continues to perfect.
Anne-Marie Chagnon's hands, her eyes, brain, instinct and coordination, are strong of over 10,000 hours of practice. According to Malcom Gladwell's theory, the artisan has achieved mastery in her art.
Building a Company
The artist at heart comes from a strong familial entrepreneurial culture. The little girl she was did not wonder what she was going to do when she grew up - rather, what she was going to built.
This path became clear when Anne-Marie Chagnon discovered the lost wax technique, which consists in using an original wax sculpture to obtain high-precision pieces. With this technique, the artist can assemble much more elaborated jewellery from a large diversity of her own pieces!
Her father financed her first pewter production. Her mother put her shoulder to the wheel by becoming her first commercial representative. By the age of 19, Anne-Marie Chagnon hired a friend to assist her in assembling the jewellery. That is when and how the company was founded.
Growing and remaining true to herself
Throughout the years, beyond epochs, in spite of growth, the engaged artist and entrepreneur stays faithful to her conviction: being your true self is remarkable.
Creation-wise, it means offering women, in complete authenticity, the jewellery that springs from her hands. Anne-Marie Chagnon creates without constraints, mindful not of trends but of injecting the best of herself in each of her creations.
Business-wise, is means maintaining all of her activities at her Montreal studio, head office of the company. For Anne-Marie Chagnon, assuming all stages of creation, production and marketing of the jewellery from the studio contributes to guaranteeing a superior quality and is consistent with her values.
Birth of the company
Foundation
Two major aspects of Anne-Marie Chagnon's life came together to create this jewel of a company: her abundant artistic universe and her family's entrepreneurial spirit.
The tongue
Exhibition in Toronto
As a project for her training in visual arts, Anne-Marie Chagnon created a series of jewellery for the tongue! These audacious creations were exhibited as photographs at Toronto's CONTACT annual festival and selected as Critic's Choice by The Globe and Mail.
Partnership with
Cirque du soleil
Solidly implanted in Quebec and already quite present in the rest of Canada and the United States, Anne-Marie Chagnon rapidly built an enviable international reputation. It grew considerably as she partnered with Le Cirque du Soleil.
Shanghai World Expo
Representing Canada
Today, Anne-Marie Chagnon's international reputation is second to none. The artist was even made the honour of representing Canada at the Shanghai World Expo in 2010.
Peer recognition
Peabody Essex Museum
Style and fashion icon Iris Apfel herself selected Anne-Marie Chagnon's creations to be part of the collection of artworks sold at the Peabody Essex Museum.
Fundraising collections
HOPE X ICM
Community involvement is a value Anne-Marie Chagnon holds dear. Through time, the company developed a community involvement program around three pillars: studio fundraising sales, sponsorships and fundraising collections, such as the collection Jewellery of Hope, to support research on ovarian cancer.
Since 20 years
Logo makeover
After twenty years, a new era is dawning. Rooted in Montreal and open to the world, Anne-Marie Chagnon wished to begin this new chapter by renewing her signature that had to express the power of the merger between her creativity, inimitable, and her know-how, mastered.
Exhibition in Montreal
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
The Calder Foundation and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts select Anne-Marie Chagnon jewelry to feature in the boutique of the exhibition — Alexander Calder, A Radical Inventor.
Brand acquisition
wellDunn jewelry
With a vision to attracting a varied, youthful clientele and exploring new creative dimensions, Anne-Marie Chagnon ventures into a new artistic universe with the recent acquisition of local jewelry brand, wellDunn.