A precious first day of school
A pencil is an object of power. Jewellery designer Nadine Ghosn has used it to sketch a precious everyday life. Lily Templeton, London
For a long time, the first day of school marked the end of fantasy and imagination. And yet, hidden in our pencil cases was a magical object: the pencil. For the start of the 2019 school year, it can be found in gold, paved with coloured stones, among the supplies of student Nadine Ghosn, accompanied by paper clips, set squares, compasses and even the iconic Bic pen.
Why make the humble pencil so precious? You can do many things with this wooden stick containing a graphite lead, starting with writing stories and sometimes even history. But it was also the sentimental dimension of the pencil, this Proustian madeleine whose colour changes with different cultures, that appealed to her. ‘It’s a powerful object: so simple, so affordable. Everyone has held one in their hands. But it’s also a form of expression,’ says the London-based designer, whom we met one morning during the summer holidays. ‘For me, it represents school, learning. I believe in continuous learning. We never stop learning.’
She knows this first-hand, as she had to teach herself everything in order to make her way in the codified and stratified world of jewellery. ‘It was hard to be taken seriously because I didn’t come from the trade or a family of jewellers,’ she recalls. ‘I had dabbled in the subject at Hermès [where she worked for a few months in the jewellery department], but I had to learn everything: buying gold, negotiating costs, knowing how much gold is lost, understanding the supply chain.’
Bringing out the precious in everyday life is the challenge she sets herself with each collection, ever since the Burger ring, a weekday ring as indulgent as it is decadent, launched her career. “My inspirations are everyday products, seen from a different angle. I like the idea of objects that inspire positive emotions in the people who own them and with which they can identify. ”
Is it a coincidence that what has always excited her is ‘the fact of designing something that becomes reality, that is worn’? Probably not.
