Established in 2010 by Christopher Roule and Laurin Lucaire, Roule & Co prides itself on pushing the boundaries of gold and other precious metals to create pieces that are futuristic-looking but very wearable.
Long-time friends and admirers of each other's work, the pair had collaborated on a number of conceptual projects before they married five years ago and decided to merge their respective talents under the Roule & Co banner.
With more than two decades' experience designing and making jewellery, Christopher has spent the last few years developing the signature wireform technique that is exemplified in Roule & Co's Wired Collection. A graphic designer by trade, Laurin brings a bold yet feminine touch to the jewellery designs.
"Heirlooms from the future" is how the New York-based husband and wife team describe their architectural jewels. Inspired by nature as well as architecture, the jewels bring together geometric volumes, three-dimensional surfaces and anything up to 175 carats of loose gemstones in an utterly harmonious manner.
While neither Christopher nor Lauren has any architectural training, they are fascinated by the way architecture unites both the mundane and the extraordinary and also by the beauty and "engineering" found in nature, such as ferns, butterfly wings and snowflakes. Christopher says: "Our pieces tend to be literally as well as figuratively architectural. Most of the shapes and volumes of the pieces illustrate our desire to push the materials to the outer limit, for example how ethereal can fine gold be, while maintaining its structural integrity?"
The pair use a combination of CAD tools and old school jewellery making techniques to produce their unique jewels. Christopher stresses that each design starts with the simplest of tools - a pen and paper: "We are obsessive sketchers. We have volumes of journals filled with ideas in development or yet to come and continually bounce ideas off one another."
Currently available at Bergdorf Goodman in New York and at Szor Collections in Dallas, Roule & Co is in the process of expanding to other outlets in the US and also plans to launch its own transactional website later this year.
