In July of this year, 34-year-old Émilie Pauze cultivated her passion for design and jewelry and launched her own business, PAUZE atelier.
Although born and raised in Montreal, Émilie has been taken elsewhere by her work. After receiving a bachelors degree in Interior Design from the Industrial School of Design at University of Montreal, she worked as an interior designer in Montreal, as well as in San Francisco. After that, she spent four years working for Index Design Publications, a magazine that focused on events for architecture and design. She then moved on to work in their architecture office as a marketing coordinator.
Despite the fact that Émilie always worked in design, she never felt completely creatively fulfilled in any of these positions. “I always felt like I needed to do something on my own. I realized these jobs were great, and were fulfilling a part of what I was looking for professionally, but I’ve always been very manual. I’ve always wanted to create more, on the smaller scale, so that’s where the idea of jewelry came from. Starting your own business is one thing, but the craftsmanship, the actual jewelry-making is also fulfilling the creative part of me.”
After a year and a half of hard work, the website for PAUZE atelier officially launched. During that time, Émilie focused on why she started this process in the first place: “I’ve always been interested by jewelry, in general. Of course as a little girl and as a woman, I’ve always enjoyed wearing jewelry, but it’s not always easy to find something that I like. I think jewelry-making compares with interior design, which is on a much bigger scale. Interior design and architecture takes time, and I was looking for a faster gratification. For me, it was a matter of scale. [Jewelry] is small, it’s something that you wear, it’s something that compliments your style and it’s somehow precious as well. I think the jewelry you choose is a pretty important gesture. You choose to wear something on your body that is attached.”
Émilie’s main inspiration when creating her pieces is simplicity. Émilie makes all of the pieces herself, and enjoys working in simple shapes. “I wanted to go back to the basics,” she explains. They all use the idea of simplicity to centralize the overall cohesiveness of her collection. The pieces she constructs are meant to compliment the body part they are being worn on.
“I think it’s a little cliché, but in nature, the inspiration is endless. Some elements in nature are so complex, but in the end, it could come down to a really simple shape. In my jewelry, I want to remove all of the ‘extra’ and the ‘unnecessary.’” By designing her pieces with simplicity in mind, Émilie hopes to create timeless pieces that can be loved and worn ten years from now.
PAUZE atelier specializes in all different types of jewelry pieces, such as rings, necklaces, bracelets, and earrings. Émilie’s personal favorite pieces to design are rings, the first kind of piece that she made. She adores designing earrings, however, she finds they are more difficult to keep simplistic, but still different. Necklaces are fun for her because of the creative freedom to play around with different pendants and chains.
Beyond creating her general collections, Émilie also specializes in creating wedding bands or personalized gifts for specific clients. When she’s in the studio designing her collection, she has full creative freedom. However, when she has clients that come to her, it can be another story.
“I’ve had clients that came to me because they liked my style. […] Then, there are clients that like my style, but they have something else in mind. They’ll tell you what they have in mind, and sometimes it’s not necessarily the direction you would take. That is what makes it interesting because you can use your client to bring in new elements to your design.”
Challenges that make her think outside of the box by taking her outside of her comfort zone are something that Émilie loves. The new way of thinking can help her create more interesting pieces in the future.
Overall, the experience of working with clients is wonderful for Émilie. In the end, both she and the client have created a piece together that is very personal for the both of them. The piece is a balancing act of both Émilie’s and her client’s visions.
What Émilie has done is truly inspiring. She took a chance and followed her dreams. When asked what advice she has for other young women wanting to start their own business, she laughed and said, “Well, it is not easy!” Émilie feels, most importantly, you need to have a plan and have your project really well-established on paper. It is not simple to leave behind the security of being employed. “Also, financially, you have to know things are going to be different,” she adds.
However, there are resources and organizations for women planning to start up a business (four of them in Montreal alone), which were an asset to Émilie in creating PAUZE atelier. Émilie’s work now is mainly creative, but at the start, she had to do all of the business as well. She did all of the marketing, the graphic design and created her own logo. Despite being on her own, Émilie felt her past work experience helped her in her venture. She already had contacts and resources she could go to if she really needed assistance. “Something I realized at the beginning was, ‘Wow, I cannot do it all!’”
Émilie’s business, PAUZE atlier, is contining to flourish and she is ecstatic to find out the future has in store. “For me, the journey getting here has all been worth it. I can’t believe I’m doing this right now. I don’t know what’s going to happen in five years or in ten years. My work is very satisfying and I’ve never had this satisfaction ever before.”
You can check out Émilie’s stunning designs on her website and Facebook.
Photos provided by interviewee and obtained from http://pauzeatelier.com/