Blancpain Art de Vivre event ~ August 2015

kudos to the awesome team at Blancpain for a cool event sharing on it's Métiers d’Art ramge and it's Shakudo models. twas great to learn more about the art that goes into these pieces and meeting an artist that does these wonderful engravings. sharing some pix from the nite below and thoughts along the way. a standing dinner was served as well and the food was good but i didn't get round to taking pix of the food as it came was gobbled up very quickly.  

first off the venue selected was pretty cool... exploration mode on!

oh what do we have here. nice bungalow with pool and blancpain in lights

on the facade... so this is how the other 1% lives ;)

this was on the grounds and was pretty cool as i was thinking just then 
'how do i get a-head in life...' hmm

Dimitri Aubert who recently joined the team as Area Sale Manager shared about Blancpain [oh can also see Jene
 and Jenny giving directions in the back]and their Metiers DÁrt pieces and Shakudo process

which got me interested to try it for myself... & after ruining a few S$100+k pieces

 the pro stepped in and told me that a professional career as a graveur was
 not on the cards for me... introducing Ms Caroline Kukielczynski

she's got the steady hands

these wonderful sketches done by her as potential designs for customers to select from

a sketch for the Shakudo coelacanth series

a look at the engravings... what u see through the microscope

and the right brand for the microscope I might add ;) they were in the 
business of making these before they did cameras

the great wall of China 

Artwork for Ganesh

tools of the craft... burens being the main tool for engravers

some random shots about the event venue (apologies for overall quality as i was playing around with 
a new lense and still learning how to use it better)

which had some nice pieces on display as well

some watches... tourbillon

openworked pocketwatch

snake from the zodiac series

Stefano getting a closer look

i conversed with Caroline, badly, as she is fluent in French and i only speak the English. i believe working at blancpain
 is her first job for several years now after many more years of training(i believe it was 6years) in the arts

a very nice event overall. and my thanks to Jenny for the invite down. folks would know that she has been 

working in the watch industry awhile now and has done a lot for the previous brand she was at and will 

no doubt bring that same verve and excellence with her to Blancpain

and a parting shot with Dimitri and Caroline before i had to scoot off

my best wishes to the team there(didn't manage to get pics with or of all of 'em) for the cool evening. i will try to shoot some other watches from them some time soon if that can be arranged :) cheers, raph