Chapter 157 - Owed A Favor

The rest of the trip was a a nonstop bullet train, speeding through the days before my last day arrived. 

Fleur sent her new studio address and we took a taxi to her place. Her studio was more towards the countryside which was beneficial as it helped her maintain her privacy. The winter looked especially beautiful over the beautiful landscape, the snow piled perfectly and looked so soft and untouched unlike in the city.

"Merci." I thanked the driver and before I could even knock Fleur was already outside of her studio waiting for me. Despite being older than me her looks were still classic and stunning. She ushered us in. "Good to see you." She was a woman of few words, she gave a simple greeting and pointed to where we can leave our shoes and winter coats.

She had some slippers we could use which was a great relief from the cold. Her studio was spacious and I could already see the stone slabs she found. The beautiful dark reddish color looked gorgeous under the light she had on the table. 

"So this is it. Where did you even come across such a high quality batch?" It can be found in poor quality every so often but ones with higher quality meant for making gems is harder to find. For just the gem alone, the ones used in fine jewelry can fetch for around US$60,000 per carat. 

I was not initially planning on creating anything with it when Fleur first shared what she found. Usually she will share with me what she finds and offers to sell it to me discounted from market value. But when she shared these it was too rare of a find so I assumed she wanted to keep it as part of her non-sellable collection.

However to my surprise she offered for us to work on a collaboration to design and sell a limited edition collection. I had been begging for a while for a collaboration on a collection but I mainly anticipated for a design, not for material. So now looking at the stones and assessing it in person, based on the pieces she had and assuming nothing goes wrong, we could create between 1-3 pieces.

It did not seem like much but that number could go up depending how much stone we incorporate in it. And for the quality, that was already such a huge deal as most quality finds can only amount to a ring or pendant.

"A friend of a friend. Lets say I was owed a favor." The other thing about her is that she liked to remain a mystery. So short vague answers were common for her. I was lucky to get more than a singular word let alone her speaking to me in English.

She was a proud French woman who often refused to speak any other language besides her mother tongue. 

Dean peeked from behind me to get a look at the stones on the table.

"Ah yes Mr. Dean Cortez. I like the art exhibition you held." Fleur commented directly to Dean while she grabbed additional chairs for everyone to sit. "Oh thank you. I am very happy with how it turned out, I plan to host another sometime soon." Dean clasped his hands together in gratitude and even bowed a bit at the praise. 

Fleur did not look phased and continued to move around us as she pulled out her design book, pencils, and a container holding what I assumed to be mock hardware materials. "Using rookie artists was a bold choice." She set aside the materials and flipped to the pages she had started.

"My vision was to have artists with impact and give a stage for rising names. Bold maybe but well deserved." He rolled up his sleeves which flashed his tattoos. Fleur paid no mind and simply nodded her head as she agreed with his sentiment. "True."

"Ok lets talk design." Her design page was extremely detailed with long notes and squares which give a zoomed perspective of the intricate detail she wanted carved on the hardware and the cage she wanted to hold the stone itself.

As for the cut and polish, she chose a Briolette cut. This style of cut is drop-shaped with diamond-shaped facets all the way around. Getting this cut requires a real master as it is extremely difficult to manage the amount of cuts as well and maintain a perfect structure. 

Her design was a several small Briolette cut pendants with a cusp to connect the tip to the chain. The chain itself was weaved intricately with minuscule chains to give a soft illusion as though the gems were floating on the neck. 

From her hardware box she had several similar chains in gold and silver to give an example of what she wanted as well as serve for visualization purposes. 

"Oh wow this is stunning. My only concern would be the weight. The chain itself is quite thin which while it gives the delicate look the weight of the stone will sage the necklace forward and not have it maintain its desired shape." The chains she had pulled out where good but we would need to weave in additional smaller structured chains for better weight distribution.

This puzzled her but within a minute she snapped her fingers and adjusted the design and notes. "What if the cusps hold the extra chains and do a shorter more choker style. Keep it close to the neck." She pulled a necklace from the box and around my neck she adjusted the sample to indicate where her vision was. 

It was not a bad idea. "The cusps could work as it is more forgiving if we need to make it more bulky. Ok we can mock a sample and go from there." I gave her the thumbs up and pulled out my design book. While I came up with varied pieces I figured the earrings I came up with would be the best match for the collection.

"These are the earrings I came up with. Looking at the batch we should just have enough, though this design is quite forgiving should we need to adjust anything." 

Fleur looked over my design and I waited with baited breath to hear her thoughts.