Gem Atelier
When Stones Tell Stories
The classrooms of Lycée Français Alexandre Yersin planted in me a love for detail and narrative, and Gem Atelier was my first attempt to turn that love into something tangible. As a high school student, I dreamed not of selling jewelry, but of creating pieces that carried meaning—where French refinement met Vietnamese craftsmanship, and each design told a story as personal as a whispered memory.
But sketches alone could not teach me the language of the luxury world. That is why I stepped beyond my atelier and into the showrooms of Duong Precious. In Milan, during the brand’s European expansion, I worked as a Business Project Assistant, weaving between Vietnamese, English, and French to support over 130 high-value clients. Translating their feedback and pitching collections, I learned that strategy is built not on abstract plans but on human trust. I still remember the night we closed over $22,000 in direct sales—not because of the number itself, but because I saw, for the first time, how a story carved into stone could cross borders and find a home.
In the United States, as a Marketing and Creative Assistant, the lesson shifted again. Here, it was not about established collectors but about teenagers discovering luxury for the first time. By blending peer insights with playful, tarot-inspired consultations, I helped bring in more than $5,000 in revenue, proving that meaning matters even to the youngest audiences. At the JA New York Shows, as I moved through crowded halls engaging visitors and synthesizing 150 responses into insights for the sales team, I realized that marketing itself is another kind of storytelling—a way of listening before speaking.
These experiences did not take me away from Gem Atelier; they carried me back to it with deeper understanding. Milan gave me the discipline of process, New York gave me the pulse of markets, and together they taught me that a brand cannot live on design alone—it must listen, adapt, and connect. Today, every collection at Gem Atelier carries not just the influence of my French schooling, but also the lessons I carried home from two continents.
After my internships with Duong Precious in Milan and the United States, I returned to my own workbench with new eyes. The showroom floors and trade fairs had taught me about markets, strategy, and clients—but it was in sketching that those lessons truly became mine.
Looking back now, each sketch is a record of growth. The notebooks are filled with both imperfect attempts and promising designs, but together they capture the bridge I am building: from student intern to designer, from abstract ideas to collections that tell stories. They remind me that jewelry does not begin with sparkle—it begins with pencil strokes, sharpened by lessons learned in the world beyond the atelier.
RAGE
The spark within
Concept: Inner courage - beautiful without shouting. Deep reds, clean facets, moderated sheen.
ENVY
Reflection that becomes growth
Concept: Compare, then transform comparison into healthy admiration. Clear greens; matte–polish contrasts.
COMPARISON
Two halves in dialogue
Concept: Who I am and who I aim to be—placed side by side to converse, not to judge.
When the first collections finally came to life, I gathered them into a catalogue—not just as a product listing, but as a record of the journey. Each page carried more than jewelry; it carried the evolution from sketch to stone, from inspiration to form. Holding the catalogue in my hands felt like holding proof that a student’s dream could take shape, page by page, piece by piece.
To share that story beyond my immediate circle, I launched a project page dedicated to Gem Atelier. It became a space where sketches met photography, where behind-the-scenes notes stood beside finished designs. Visitors could see the raw beginnings of each piece, understand the symbolism woven into every cut, and follow the collections—Rage, Envy, Comparison—as they moved from concept into reality.
The catalogue and the project page were more than documentation; they were bridges. They allowed others to step inside the creative process, to feel not only the jewelry itself but the narrative behind it. And in that moment, Gem Atelier became more than my private atelier of dreams—it became a shared story, open for others to join.