About the Maker
Chloé Valorso is a Spirit Artist Jeweller. Trained at Central Saint Martins and the Royal College of Art, she explores the symbolic and energetic relationship between body, material, and environment. Working primarily with metal and stone through techniques such as lost-wax casting and carving, her practice merges ancestral craft with surrealist assemblage.
Her studio functions as an alchemical laboratory of signs where organic fragments, minerals, and cultural symbols converge. Influenced by ritual, mythology, and magical thinking, her works operate as amulets or tools for connection. In 2023 she was awarded the QEST William Parker Scholarship for emerging makers. In 2024 she received the Prix Artisanes from the ELLE LVMH award.
Residency Statement — Dreamstones
Chloé Valorso will develop Dreamstones, an ongoing research project exploring the symbolic, geological and cultural power of stones. Over the past two years, she has investigated stones through hand-carved minerals, river-found fragments and laboratory-grown crystals, questioning what makes a stone precious.
During the residency, she will combine carved stones with sculptural wax carving and lost-wax casting to create a new series of jewellery-sculptures. These hybrid objects will function as contemporary talismans. The residency will also initiate a small editorial zine documenting the research, alongside an open studio, talk and participatory ritual workshop.
Workshop Itinerary
Open Studio
Visitors are invited to discover the residency work in progress: carved stones, wax models, research materials and early jewellery pieces. The studio will function as a temporary cabinet of mineral experiments where the transformation from raw stone to talismanic object becomes visible.
Dreamstones Talk
An informal talk presenting the research behind Dreamstones, exploring stones as cultural and symbolic objects across geology, mythology, alchemy and contemporary craft. The presentation will discuss different categories of stones used in the project: river-found fragments, carved minerals and laboratory-grown crystals.
Jewellery Ritual: Craft as Reconnection
A collective session exploring jewellery and stones through ritual and imagination. Participants will be invited to connect with materials through guided meditation, intuitive drawing, tarot cards and a surrealist cadavre exquis. The workshop proposes craft as a form of wellbeing and symbolic reconnection with matter.
For more on Chloé's work: Instagram @chloe.valorso
