Michelle Loubon

While grow­ing up in the qui­et coastal vil­lage called Bre­hal in Nor­mandy, French jew­el­er Marie Lebour­geois re­ceived a gift from her par­ents called "Mag­ic Plas­tic Jew­el­ry." The five-year-old was smit­ten by the de­signs she cre­at­ed like but­ter­flies and teardrops. Lit­tle did Lebour­geois know her child-like cu­rios­i­ty would ig­nite a pas­sion for a ca­reer in jew­el­ry. To date, she is con­sid­ered a world class jew­el­ry de­sign­er.

On No­vem­ber 2, Lebour­geois and her Tri­ni-born hus­band Faoud Baksh were in town for the launch of Stech­ers Gulf City, La Ro­main,?San Fer­nan­do, out­let. Among the fetch­ing pieces were neck­laces and ban­gles. They had a twist of both an­tique and con­tem­po­rary styles.

Asked about her work Lebour­geois said, "My jew­el­ry is trend­set­ting and in­no­v­a­tive. I am us­ing tra­di­tion­al tech­niques and mix ma­te­ri­als, cast found ob­jects. I?use se­mi pre­cious stones and work with Swarovs­ki crys­tal el­e­ments. My jew­el­ry is fun, 'a la mode,' made for any gen­er­a­tion and match to any lifestyle.

"I?com­bine my cre­ativ­i­ty and artis­tic in­ter­ests in de­sign­ing jew­el­ry with the fo­cus on putting the fun back in fash­ion." Lebour­geois added, "At five years old, I start­ed mak­ing my very first pieces. Jew­el­ry has be­come my grand pas­sion."?

She ex­pressed pride in the pro­gramme of col­lab­o­ra­tion with Stech­ers. "My work is in sales in Stetch­ers in Trinidad. I am so proud to have my work in one of my favourite is­lands and in a great lux­u­ry re­tail­er."

Liv­ing the Amer­i­can dream

Lebour­geois' work­shop and home is in Man­hat­tan, New York. When hur­ri­cane Sandy struck, she said she could not even go to her work­shop. "I could not get a cab. It was bad." De­spite the nat­ur­al dis­as­ter, "I am liv­ing the Amer­i­can dream...My dream that came true be­cause of my love and pas­sion for jew­el­ry."

Be­fore sweet suc­cess, Lebour­geois paid her dues. At 15, she moved to Paris to study jew­el­ry at the pres­ti­gious Ecole Boulle school. Pat­ting her­self on the back, she said, "I was one of the eight per cent top stu­dents to pass the jew­el­ry en­trance test to se­cure a place at the pres­ti­gious Ecole Boulle school. I was very ex­cit­ed to live in Paris and learn the art of jew­el­ry."

Af­ter four years study­ing art his­to­ry, gem­mol­o­gy, stone set­ting, jew­el­ry de­sign and mak­ing, she grad­u­at­ed. Lebour­geois took a bold step and ap­plied to the famed Carti­er In­sti­tute cast­ing call. "I got ac­cept­ed at the Carti­er In­sti­tute and stud­ied there to ful­fill my skills for one in­ten­sive year course. "I came first at the Carti­er Diplo­ma and was trans­ferred to Carti­er jew­el­ry work­shop in Lon­don, Eng­land. Af­ter two great years in Lon­don, I start­ed to set­tle down. "I was pro­mot­ed to the Carti­er Jew­el­ry work­shop In New York City. There, I was in charge of the High Jew­el­ry Pol­ish­ing and Qual­i­ty Con­trol Carti­er,"?said Lebour­geois.

She al­so met her hus­band Faoud Baksh there. Though born and raised in Lon­don, Eng­land, he was tied to his Tri­ni roots. The cou­ple has a 17-month-old daugh­ter Noor. Gush­ing about Noor, she said, "I speak to my daugh­ter in french. She loves to wear the jew­el­ry I make."

Lebour­geois al­so loves her younger broth­er Paul dear­ly. He is the head Som­me­li­er at the Camelia restau­rant of the Man­darin Ori­en­tal in Paris, France.

She loves T&T

Asked how she felt about T&T, Lebour­geois said, "I fell in love with the is­land. I could have dou­bles for break­fast, bake and shark in Mara­cas beach for lunch and roti for din­ner. "My favourite is jalebi for desert. I have a sweet tooth."?

She en­joys the Car­ni­va­lesque at­mos­phere.

"I had the best time there, great at­mos­phere, very fes­tive. I love the cos­tumes. It has been very in­spi­ra­tional."? Apart from per­fect­ing jew­el­ry crafts­man­ship, Lebour­geois en­joys trav­el­ling and dis­cov­er­ing dif­fer­ent cul­tures, and sourc­ing gem stones like di­a­monds, pearls and ru­bies.

Mu­se­ums con­tin­ue to fas­ci­nate Lebour­geois dur­ing her trav­els. "I like to spend times at the Met­ro­pol­i­tan mu­se­um in New York when I am not at the Al­bert and Vic­to­ria mu­se­um in Lon­don or Le Lou­vre in Paris."?

Cre­at­ing her own brand

She has drawn in­spi­ra­tion from the nat­ur­al en­vi­ron­ment. "I?love the con­trast be­tween the city and na­ture, whether it is sail­ing a cata­ma­ran in the Caribbean, rid­ing hors­es on her grand­fa­ther's ranch in Nor­mandy, fly fish­ing in Ire­land, mush­room pick­ing in Ger­many, or vis­it­ing Switzer­land for jew­el­ry trade fairs.

"These have all in­spired my de­signs in dif­fer­ent ways; be it colour, shape and feel­ing."?Lebour­geois said her cre­ativ­i­ty and artis­tic in­ter­ests lead her to de­sign and make her own jew­el­ry. She named the brand af­ter her ma­ter­nal grand­par­ents Therese and Bernard Lebour­geois. "I sketch de­sign and make all my pieces," she said.

"They are now liv­ing a peace­ful life in the Nor­mandy coun­try­side, rid­ing trot­ting hors­es in their well-known rac­ing sta­ble Du Vivrot," she said. She even boasts work ex­pe­ri­ence in­volv­ing over 17 com­pa­nies like Van Cleef, Boucheron, Bul­gari, De Beers, Louis Vuit­ton and Joail­lerie.