Fostering Artisanal Craftsmanship: Between Tradition and Innovation
Since its inception, Vacheron Constantin has made the preservation and transmission of craftsmanship a priority, as demonstrated by the workshop within the Manufacture that is entirely dedicated to the arts and crafts. Today, 271 years after its founding, the Maison occupies a distinct place in the artistic and cultural world, deriving inspiration from a vast range of artistic practices from cultures in every corner of the globe, dating back to ancient times. With this interest in all forms of culture and decorative craft enriching every piece that it creates, the Maison’s Haute Horlogerie timepieces draw on a sophisticated combination of ancestral craftsmanship – guilloché, engraving, gem-setting, enamelling – and watchmaking techniques that are constantly being reinvented.
Vacheron Constantin plays a leading role as an incubator and catalyst, helping to promote the arts and foster both culture and creativity. Having established artistic partnerships in three continents – with the Louvre since 2019, The Met since 2023 and the Educational Institute of the Palace Museum in Beijing since 2024 – it remains a priority of the Maison to support talent by perpetuating and passing on techniques, practices and skills that encourage watchmakers and artisans to constantly push the boundaries of the possible..
Artisanal Excellence Reinvented
Launched in May 2025 by The Met in collaboration with Vacheron Constantin, the Artisan Residency Programme is entering its final phase and writing a new chapter in the story of the preservation and transmission of craftsmanship. This residency programme is built on three key pillars: to encourage the development of the widest range of artistic and craft skills so that they may evolve and thrive; to challenge and expand the norms of traditional craftsmanship by directing it towards new forms of expression; and to inspire future generations through the exchange of ideas and transmission of knowledge.
At an event hosted by Vacheron Constantin at The Met on 8 October in New York, the three artisans chosen for the programme – American designer Aspen Golann, Egyptian-American ceramicist Ibrahim Said and Anglo-Italian goldsmith and jeweller Joy Harvey – will unveil the works that each has created during their 18-month residency, which took place in New York, Geneva and the city where their studio is based.
Drawing inspiration from the rich history in The Met and the artistic and decorative expertise of Vacheron Constantin, Aspen Golann, Ibrahim Said and Joy Harvey have placed traditional decorative crafts at the forefront of their work, while challenging conventions through innovation and creativity.
Innovation and Creativity Elevated
The residency programme has resulted in three original creations. While each is highly distinctive, they collectively demonstrate the artisans’ shared artistic vision, which draws dual inspiration from masterpieces spanning centuries of art history preserved and exhibited at The Met, and the artisanal techniques and craftsmanship practiced at Vacheron Constantin for generations.
Vessel – monumental vases by Aspen Golann (bas-relief sculpture on wood)
Vertical Three-Layer Structure – three-tiered vertical structure by Ibrahim Said (modelling and engraving on lacquered ceramic)
Ruined splendour - Bronze Diadem – a bronze coronet by Joy Harvey (hammered, chiselled and laminated precious metal alloy – bronze, copper, tin, gold and silver)
Following their immersion at The Met in New York and the Vacheron Constantin Manufacture in Geneva, each artist incorporated the heritage and treasures of both institutions in a highly personal manner. Using specific materials – wood for Aspen, clay for Ibrahim, metals for Joy – as well as tools that in some cases have remained unchanged for millennia, and digital machines – such as 3D scanning for Joy – they each followed their own creative process. The artisans repeated gestures that have remained virtually unchanged for centuries, infusing them with boldness and a spirit of modernity.
During their research visits, each artisan met with curators, conservators, and other Museum experts whose work aligned with their interests and proposed project. They had the opportunity to view and handle specific objects up close, and to learn about conservation techniques that would inform their project proposals. With extended access during public and private hours, they were also able to explore the Museum’s collections independently, spending time with the objects and galleries that most closely resonated with their research and practice. The artisans have maintained close relationships with many of the Museum staff members they met during these visits, fostering ongoing dialogue and collaboration.
VESSEL by Aspen Golann
Monumental vase. Bas-relief sculpture on wood.
In her studio in New Hampshire (USA), Aspen Golann has created a monumental wooden vessel standing 5 feet tall (1.52 metres). This immense hollow form is adorned with motifs drawn from nature, including foliage, fruit, and horses, carved in bas-relief. Intended as a decorative object, the vessel combines the traditional crafts of carpentry, sculpture, and cabinetmaking.
During her time at The Met, Aspen was struck by works of American furniture from the 17th to 19th centuries. She was particularly drawn to several chests from Connecticut and Pennsylvania, including a carved wooden chest exemplifying the work of New Haven’s early cabinetmakers, a chest of drawers with panels carved with leaves and flowers – known as the ‘sunflower motif’ – and a wooden chest painted with a colourful scene of unicorns and horsemen. Among the other pieces that caught the artist’s eye were an 18th-century side chair with a seat adorned with floral embroidery, and a desk and bookcase in satinwood, maple and mahogany, made in the high-style of furniture produced in the Federal period with decorative details characteristic of Baltimore, Maryland.
At Vacheron Constantin, Aspen was interested in the enamelling and engraving techniques employed in the Maison’s métiers d’art workshop. From the specialised artisans, she discovered how these decorative techniques could transform watches from everyday functional objects into living vessels of an artistic and cultural history, rich in allegories and symbols.
Aspen Golann
A cabinetmaker and woodcarver, Aspen Golann is an American artist who teaches furniture design and making at the Rhode Island School of Design in New England (USA). Through her reinterpretation of emblematic pieces of American furniture from past centuries, her work explores issues of gender and power dynamics in an original and socially engaged way. She is also the founder of the Chairmaker’s Toolbox, which promotes access and equity in the field of chair design.
“Discovering the heritage collection watches of Vacheron Constantin reminded me just how refined craftsmanship can be and how every detail of a creation, however minute, can be the subject of extreme attention. This realisation has encouraged me to invest myself more fully in every facet of my practice.”
SHAPING TIME by Ibrahim Said
Three-tiered structure. Modelling and engraving on lacquered ceramic.
Ibrahim Said created his work at his studio in North Carolina (USA). Mixing water and clay on a potter’s wheel, the artist shaped three semi-circular compositions, which he fused into an imposing three-tiered vertical structure. As wide as it is tall (4 feet 6 inches x 3 feet), with a strongly organic feel, this sculptural piece is adorned by relief carvings, piercings and multicolored glazed surfaces that reimagine motifs typical of ancient Egyptian and Islamic cultures, amid a scattering of eight-pointed stars. In both its contours and its execution, Ibrahim’s piece carries a distinct yet subtle echo of Vacheron Constantin’s Maltese Cross emblem.
During Ibrahim’s visit to The Met, several objects caught his eye, notably the symmetry and simplicity of an ancient Egyptian Lentoid bottle**– also known as a ‘New Year’s Bottle’. The ceramicist’s other sources of inspiration included an Islamic water filter in Egypt (10th–12th centuries), a floral necklace (1336–1327 BC) found in Tutankhamun’s embalming cache, and Princess Sithathoryunet’s pectoral necklace adorned with hieroglyphs surrounded by two falcons and semiprecious stones. The necklace is engraved with the name of Senusret II, the fourth ruler of the 12th Egyptian dynasty (1887–1878 BC).
From his time at Vacheron Constantin, Ibrahim took away an appreciation for the masterful combination of artistic crafts such as engraving, enamelling and lacquer painting – skills that have been integral to his own artistic journey since he began working with clay. He was impressed by the commitment and drive for innovation that Vacheron Constantin’s artisans bring to their daily practice of these decorative arts.
** In ancient Egypt, this bottle was given as a gift on New Year’s Day. Lenticular in shape, it was filled with fresh water from the Nile, or oil or perfume.
Ibrahim Said
Born into a family of potters in Fustat in Egypt, Ibrahim Said is an Egyptian-American ceramicist who lives and works in Greensboro, North Carolina (USA). Inspired by the rich cultural heritage of his native country and the ceramics of the Naqada period (4,000–3,000 years BCE), the artist pushes the limits of clay to create vessels, vases and sculptures with shapes that defy the laws of gravity, which he decorates with intricate patterns.
“We spent a great deal of time exchanging ideas and perspectives. We spoke of patience. Patience is part of my work. We spoke of perfection. Perfection is part of my work. We also spoke of beauty. Beauty is part of my work.”
Ruined splendour - BRONZE DIADEM by Joy Harvey
Bronze coronet. Alloyed, laminated, hammered and chiselled precious and semi precious metals.
The diadem created by Joy Harvey is composed of a series of forged, rhomboid bronze profiles interlaced by panels inspired by the filigree of leaf veins, and decorated with subtle granulation, delicate, seed-shaped pendants seen on ancient Greek necklaces, and golden bramble flowers. The headpiece was crafted in custom alloys: to maintain ancient bronze’s malleability, Harvey used silver instead of lead and arsenic, while favouring a copper poor alloy of 60% gold to allow for the fusing techniques necessary to make the seeds and granulation. The last step in the diadem’s creation was to turn it into a ruin, by piercing it with cold, machine-made rods, and gently coiling around it, golden bramble flowers, decorated with guillochage patterns. For Joy, the essence of the piece lies in its ruination – in the impermanence of splendour, which is caused by both nature and human hands. The artist employs various traditional craft techniques, combining them with more contemporary methods such as 3D scanning. By creating objects that may appear unfinished or even damaged, she affirms her belief that imperfections are sites for deeper meanings, especially in a practice (and world) obsessed with artificial perfection.
During her visit to The Met, Joy fell in love with several pieces of jewellery across times and cultures: a copper alloy tiara (Carpathians, 1200–800 BC), a pair of gold earrings made for royalty, demonstrating craftsmanship in goldsmithing and jewellery-making (India, 1st century BC), a gold necklace with seed-shaped pendants (Greece, 330–300 BC) and a gold headdress set with rubies, pearls and cat’s-eye stones (China, Song Dynasty, 960–1279 or later). The artist was also deeply moved by an unfinished painting by the French artist Théodore Rousseau (1812–1867) depicting a sunset in the Forest of Fontainebleau in winter. The sombre, peaceful and conclusive atmosphere, that feels like the day after a catastrophe, echoes the emotion that Joy sought to infuse into her tiara.
The jewellery artist spent dedicated time in Vacheron Constantin’s workshops, admiring and learning the art of guillochage, which decorates the flowers. The petals of the brambles were first engraved on a guilloché lathe then the pattern was deliberately distorted by striking and hammering the metal so that the petals had no clear geometric boundaries, ultimately appearing as elaborate imperfections, giving form to a distorted, patinated, beautifully ruined object.
Joy Harvey
Born in Italy, where she lives and works, Joy Harvey is a goldsmith who creates intimate, fully handmade jewels inspired by raw emotions, wild beauty and the human struggle with the passage of time. In 2021, she co-founded her workshop – la luce – with photographer and engineer Marco Rossi, with whom she solves technical challenges through digital techniques. Trained in traditional Florentine jewellery-making techniques, the artist, who read Chemistry at University, takes a philosophical and emotional approach to contemporary jewellery, exploring melancholic concepts of time passing focusing on sites of imperfection, immanence and ruination.
“It was a unique opportunity to work with skilled craftspeople who fully understand what it means to be an artisan and what you need to grow your skills. Each one highlighted techniques and challenges necessary to bring to life the fruit of your vision and creative inspiration.”
A Major Artistic and Cultural Collaboration
Since 2023, Vacheron Constantin and The Met have been engaged in an artistic and cultural partnership that is manifested through various events and sponsorship initiatives. Among them, the programme ‘A Masterpiece on the Wrist’ enables enthusiasts and collectors to collaborate with Vacheron Constantin’s Les Cabinotiers workshop, creating a one-off watch tailored to the patron’s wishes, with a dial that reproduces, in enamel, a work from The Met’s collection. On another level, exemplifying the living bond of this partnership, the Artisan Residency Program reflects the shared commitment of both institutions to the preservation and transmission of the arts, craftsmanship and culture in all its forms.
For Vacheron Constantin, mentorship is a vocation and an essential value. As a key element of the Artisan Residency Programme, it echoes the founding act of the oldest watchmaking Manufacture to remain in continuous operation: the signing by Jean-Marc Vacheron in 1755 of the Maison’s first apprenticeship contract. From generation to generation, Vacheron Constantin is committed to ensuring the continuity of the watchmaking and artisanal tradition, while enriching it with new techniques and avenues of exploration.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art was founded in 1870 by a group of American citizens—businessmen and financiers as well as leading artists and thinkers of the day—who wanted to create a museum to bring art and art education to the American people. Today, The Met displays tens of thousands of objects covering 5,000 years of art from around the world for everyone to experience and enjoy. The Museum lives in two iconic sites in New York City—The Met Fifth Avenue and The Met Cloisters. Millions of people also take part in The Met experience online. Since its founding, The Met has always aspired to be more than a treasury of rare and beautiful objects. Every day, art comes alive in the Museum’s galleries and through its exhibitions, events and educational programs, revealing both new ideas and unexpected connections across time and across cultures. The Met presents over 29,000 educational events and programs throughout the year to make art accessible to everyone, regardless of background, disability, age, or experience.
