Photos by Fabrice Fortin for Paris By Appointment Only™

Just like her distinct, handmade jewels, Valerie Sloan’s shoebox of a boutique is striking despite its diminutive size. Maybe it’s because there’s usually no one in it.

When she’s not upstairs with her slowly growing clientele, the former sculptor can be found downstairs in her atelier handcrafting new pieces for her couture bijoux collection.

Looking for a way to transform her love of volumes and textures to a smaller, more manageable format, Sloan switched from sculpture to jewelry in 2000.

“Sculptors are often burdened by the weight and size of the objects. I quickly realized that I could continue making sculpted objects that were precious to me through jewelry,” says Sloan who opened her shop, Valslo, in early 2009.

Using an ancient technique called “lost-wax casting,” she first sculpts her design out of a block of wax, studying and smoothing its every facet with a battalion of tools. Then she carries her delicate wax carving to a nearby foundry, where it’s transformed into a one-of-a-kind jewel in silver or gold.

Since her brand is still budding, she produces one piece at a time, which means that the design on display is the only one in stock. If it’s not your size, Sloan has to go through the whole process again. This slow, non-commercial method would drive any ambitious entrepreneur nuts, but Sloan wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I like to tailor-make things, the idea is for people to order something personalized and timeless,” says Sloan, who treats each piece like a future heirloom.The fit and comfort of the jewel is as important to Sloan as the overall aesthetic, which means that she’ll spend hours polishing the inside of a ring just to give it a silken feel. The shiny interiors also offset her predominantly matte surfaces.

“Unlike shiny metals, with matte surfaces you can see how volumes have been sculpted through the relationship between light and shadow. ”

Inspired by everything from a crack in the wall and a fleeting shadow to the rocks in her garden, her designs have a palpable personality to them. Physical symbols of passing thoughts and observations, the collection runs the gamut of emotions, from tender and romantic to raw and blunt. Even though there’s a coherent current running throughout, the range has three distinct styles.

The first is feminine and precious (both literally and figuratively) with light, delicate forms adored with Tahitian pearls green sapphires or specked quartz. The intermediary range consists of asymmetrical shapes with continual curves. The final unisex group in massive silver is the most weighty and  industrial.

While there are occasional earrings and necklaces throughout, Sloan (if you haven’t noticed) is a ring lady with an incurable passion for wedding bands. “I like the idea of a symbolic jewel, especially one that represents the union between two people. It’s a beautiful example of idealism.”

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Valslo: 10 rue du Perche, 75003 Paris
Prices: €500-1500, depending on design and material
Atelier visits: On request, contact me for details.

As a kid, my dad would take me to the mall to pick out new charms for my charm necklace. Despite his best intentions, the process was excruciating. Somehow all of my preteen identity angst turned charm shopping into total trauma. Was I supposed to highlight my roller skating obsession or divulge my nerdy violin skills? Share my BFF status with my cool new friend or faithful childhood pal? Wear my initials in girlie curlicues or badass Brooklyn fonts?

Belying their diminutive size, charms have a way of saying a lot. Scaled-down renderings of our pastimes, dreams and preferences, each tiny charm brings to vivid life an intimate part of our personality. Viewed together as a collection, they can be quite revealing indeed.

So here I am, two decades later, faced with the ultimate charm challenge: navigating the holy grail of French charms without crying out for daddy.

Recognized as an “Entreprise du Patrimoine Vivant” (Living Heritage Company), Bijoux Commelin is a 19th century family-run jewelry company that specializes in charms and translucent enamels. One of the oldest manufacturers of charms in France and the only company in Paris to perpetuate the art of handcrafted miniatures, Bijoux Commelin boasts over 2,000 miniatures in its ravishing repertoire.

(A word of advice: peruse their site to get your bearings before your visit.)

Each design is crafted by hand using ancestral techniques that have been handed down and perfected from one Commelin generation to the next since the company’s founding in 1880. The jewels are all made out of fine metals and come in multiple sizes to match the breadth of your budget (count 40E-300E for each charm depending on size, complexity and material).

The company’s true treasure trove is its collection of French monuments. From the Eiffel Tower to the Concord Obelisk by way of Sacre Coeur the Arc de Triomphe and Notre Dame, they have them all, beautifully and faithfully reproduced.

Imagine strutting around with an entire collection of your favorite Paris haunts strung around your neck? It would be strange, striking and a cool conversation starter. If only I had known about them back in Junior High!

*Ask about their made-to-measure services if your heart’s set on a custom design.