Mo

High Jewellery design drafting artisan

Fertile imagination

There is one particular atelier where artisans work without the slightest noise of machines or tools and where all that can be heard is the sound of a pencil gliding across paper. This is the realm where the fertile imagination of Mo – Design Drafting Artisan in our High Jewellery department – has been roaming free since 2011. In this office with its sloping desks overlooking the Swiss Jura and the wine-growing plains of Canton Geneva, she serenely traces a two-dimensional vision of the creations that our Artisan Jewellers will create in precious stones and metals.

[A sustained note in the background]


(On-screen text: Chopard presents) 


(Mo opens her watercolour palette and begins to sketch some hydrangeas.)


In my designs, I like to mix Western and Asian cultures. I add many memories of my homeland and the love I feel for my current life.


(On-screen text: ART, from the Latin ARS, ARTIS. Talent, skill, dexterity.)


[Soft piano music plays]


(On-screen text: The word ART becomes ARTISAN.)


(On-screen text: From expertise to emotion. Chopard)


(A black and white graphite sketch of the palm of a hand, surrounded by the words EXPERTISE, CREATIVITY, EMOTION.)


My name is Su Mo and I'm a High Jewellery designer at Chopard.


(A portrait of Mo.) 


(On-screen text: Mo, Design Drafting Artisan)


Design enables me to express myself. I always yearned to go to a Fine Art school or something similar. So I bought lots of books. At home, I used to draw in secret and at night. One day, my mother saw all my drawings and exclaimed, "Wow".


(On-screen text: Seeking inspiration through aquarelle drawing)


Afterwards, she bought me some supplies, pens, paper, etc.


(Mo adds colour to the hydrangeas.)


(On-screen text: Exploring and developing ideas through sketches)


(Mo sketches out floral shapes and jewel facets.)


I like lots of things, so it's true that my creations also contain lots of different worlds. Especially colours, I love colours, I think that life is all about colour. Like in life, each one has its own story.


(On-screen text: Sketching the first rough outlines of the necklace)


(As Mo sketches, the floral necklace takes form on the page. She chooses colours and adds pinks, blues and purples to the flowers, with white highlights to add sparkling dew.)


I love that at Chopard, our creativity knows no bounds. When I design something, I can do lots of research. I've always said I couldn't stand being confined in a small box.


(On-screen text: Using transparent watercolours to enhance the final design)


When the piece is finished, we can go back over our work. It's like pruning a tree, so it can be reshaped. If we're confined to a small box when designing something, our creativity is stunted. And afterwards, it's much harder to create exceptional pieces. Traditional Chinese culture has always greatly influenced my artistic inspiration.


(On-screen text: Adding gouache colouring to set the final touch)


I don't want to create anything that's traditionally Chinese or European. I would love these two cultures to converge and coexist harmoniously. We love saying that in China, "harmonious", "yin-yang", the perfect balance.


(Mo's design has been made into a necklace, she lifts it and examines it next to her original work.)


The simplest word is "comfortable", "舒服". It encompasses it all, life, everything, your work, your relationships. When you feel comfortable, it means everything's ok.


(On-screen text: Chopard - The artisan of emotions - Since 1860)

"Drawing is my language, my way of expressing myself. The emotion I feel when my hand has finally succeeded in accurately translating the idea that I have in mind is indescribable."

Mo, High Jewellery design drafting artisan

MO, High Jewellery Design Drafting artisan

Mo requires twin talents: first, the ability to draw; but above all, the capacity to dream. To let her imagination wander in every moment of her daily life. A stroll in a park, an exhibition, a nap in the garden, a pairing of rare diamonds laid out on her desk: Mo stores every detail in her mind. They will be her source of inspiration in giving life to the most beautiful High Jewellery creations. Drawing is her language, her only means of expression. With accurate, deft touches, she unleashes ideas previously confined to the depths of her thoughts.

The final drawing

Everything begins with sketches, details, and drafts that she reinterprets until she feels she has taken her thinking to its ultimate conclusion. She then begins the final drawing on a sheet of paper, the one that will be the first real image of the luxury jewellery to come. Pencils, felt-tip pens, paints: lines emerge, colours bloom, paper comes to life. In the High Jewellery atelier from which only one-of-a-kind creations emerge, the drawing will be the only concrete representation of a jewel before it is completed in three dimensions. It will therefore serve as a basis for all the model-makers, who will keep the precious sketch permanently on their workbench. Prior to that, it will have been approved by Caroline Scheufele, her workshop manager or the clients to whom it has been proposed. Thanks to Mo’s talent, everyone will have begun to imagine the emotions aroused when the object of this desire is brought to fruition.

From expertise to emotions

Our mains d'art