Karl Mazlo doesn't just create jewelry. It redefines materials, twists codes, and transforms what is forgotten into precious reminiscences.
Presented at the show revelations at the Grand Palais in Paris, from May 21-25, 2025, Karl Mazlo embodies contemporary jewelry where gesture becomes language.
A family heritage and an exceptional career
Heir to a jewelry tradition embodied by his father, Robert Mazlo, Karl trained at the École Boulle, a temple of materials and artisanal rigor. He then refined his practice through contact with various workshops, then founded his own creative space in 2016 at the Villa du Lavoir, in Paris. A place of exploration rather than production, his workshop becomes a field of experiments where jewelry is thought of as an artistic act.
A style that goes against classic luxury
Far from the conventional splendor of fine jewelry, the jeweler appropriates damask steel, brick, concrete, marble, and even brass. He combines them with noble metals to better enhance their textures and roughness. Inspired by the wabi-sabi, Japanese, he claims imperfection as a vector of emotion. His residency at the Villa Kujoyama in Kyoto was also a major turning point: it led him to think of jewelry as a trace of time and a mirror of the living.
Wabi-sabi is a Japanese aesthetic movement derived from Zen philosophy, which emphasizes the beauty of imperfect, transient, and simple things. Rather than striving for perfection or symmetry, it celebrates the humble, authentic, and ephemeral.
« My approach is to re-examine the practice of jewelry, by proposing responsible alternatives to the use of precious stones. Through a play of textures and light, I seek to ennoble raw materials through handwork. »
Iconic creations
- Blue Summits : a series of unique gold and lapis lazuli jewelry, this collection is inspired by "lapis lazuli," formerly known as blue gold. Each piece is cut from a rough block and handcrafted to evoke miniature landscapes: bluish ridges, golden veins of pyrite, starry skies. A tribute to nature and its mineral poetry.
- Gray Landscape : Jewelry and rings made from scraps of Damascus steel, forged in Japan. The metal, usually reserved for cutlery, here reveals organic, layered, and hypnotic patterns. By combining different layers of steel, Mazlo transforms the ordinary into a precious material. Each piece stands the test of time, marking a combination of strength and refinement.
- Cast Shadows : an architectural collection inspired by Tadao Andō and Carlo Scarpa. These rings, in gold, silver, or platinum, are designed as modular volumes. They can be combined, stacked, and contemplated. Outside the body, they become miniature sculptures, memories of silent and luminous spaces.
- Black garden : monumental ring in damask steel and its sculpted wall case, designed as a work in its own right. The heart of the support is removable, revealing a golden interior. Winner of the Liliane Bettencourt Prize for the intelligence of the hand in 2021, this creation questions the relationship between jewelry, case, and exhibition.
- Red Fragments : unique jewelry made from Occitan bricks, set like precious stones. Each fragment, patinated by fire and time, becomes a memory of a lost skill. A work born from a workshop in a tile factory condemned to close, where raw materials become poetic.
- Objects of Encounters : four pewter sake glasses made at Villa Kujoyama. Each object evokes a Japanese landscape, similar to a haiku. No tools were used to sculpt the texture: the natural prints speak for themselves, in an essential simplicity.
- Cube 2084 : 20,84 cm parallelepiped sculpture. Austere steel case, interior in chiseled, galvanized, cast brass. The mirror polish opens onto a luminous and enigmatic theater. Two symbolic characters inhabit the cube, inviting the imagination.
- Enso : circular miniatures in collaboration with Shimura Yasutoshi. Made from natural imprints of Mount Fuji, these pieces are cast without tools. The Zen circle becomes a symbol of wholeness, harmony, and inner breathing.
- Louboutin x Mazlo : two breastplates adorned with iconic Louboutin lipsticks. Karl Mazlo evokes ancient Egypt, dear to Christian Louboutin, to sculpt a glamorous and sacred vision of femininity. Working with metal to enhance light and shine, each lipstick becomes a talisman.
- Moët & Chandon x Mazlo : four brass sculptures for Moët Impérial jeroboams. Reflections, spheres, chiseled textures: the work illustrates the effervescence of champagne and the characteristics of the Champagne terroir. Three examples were produced, including one sold for €25 in France, to celebrate the house's 000th anniversary.
A craftsman as well as a transmitter, Karl Mazlo welcomes young creators into his workshop, such as Virgile Bruniau, winner of the 2024 Savoir-Faire en Transmission Award. Together, they reintroduce ancient techniques from a contemporary perspective. Each creation thus becomes a sector, a testament to both continuity and momentum.
For Karl Mazlo, jewelry is never simply an ornament. It is a writing of matter, an archive of gesture, an inhabited metaphor. Between the rigor of the craftsman and the inspiration of the poet, he shakes up the codes and restores the jewelry's original symbolic power. A work to contemplate, to wear, to reflect on.
"To my child, jewelry was a wonder, something magical, a kind of treasure that could grant powers. Today, it's mostly a form of expression." Karl Mazlo
Ema Lynnx
