Emilie Roche is a jewelry designer based in Paris, France, and Figuig, Morocco.
Our pieces are made using the ancient craft of bead crochet. One bead at a time, the worker’s hand crochets a threading onto itself, slowly creating a cord of beads.
Our finest pieces take ten hours to crochet. The result of such patience is a very delicate handiwork, made up of thousands of beads, each like a fragment of time.
For bead crochet is essentially linked to time, an excess of time: in the 19th century it occupied high society women’s idleness, who made small purses and children’s beanies; it became a remedy to boredom to WWI prisoners in Turkey, who created lavish snakes and lizards with intricate motifs.
Every piece is designed in our Paris atelier. For each piece, beads are carefully selected from renowned glass bead makers in Bohemia and Japan. The crochet parts are handmade in the oasis of Figuig, Morrocco, by women that we meticulously formed to the technique. Finally, we assemble the pieces in Paris using 14 carats Gold Filled findings.
Our products are ethically made, providing Figuigi women with a professional activity that is complementary to their traditional tasks and personal lives, in harmony with the local economy of the oasis. We visit Figuig twice a year to teach them new designs and techniques.
