The bench
One bench, four seats, and a casting room the size of a cupboard.
AURELUNE has worked from the same room on Schuttershofstraat since 2009. Four people, one bench, roughly ninety pieces a year.
The house was founded by two goldsmiths who had spent a decade setting stones for other people's names. The intention was narrow and has not changed: make a small number of pieces properly, keep the setting in house, and be reachable by the person who owns the ring twenty years later.
Because of what is around it. The stone trade here means a coloured stone can be seen loose, in person, the same week it is asked about, and a diamond can be compared against three others before lunch. An atelier in a city without that network buys stones from photographs, and it shows in what gets made.
Stone and metal at cost plus a stated margin, labour at an hourly rate that is the same whether the piece is €1,800 or €18,000. It means small commissions are not subsidising large ones, and it means the quotation can be read line by line rather than taken on trust.
Every piece is hallmarked at the Belgian assay office. We are registered with the Antwerp World Diamond Centre for rough and polished trading records, and diamonds are bought only through dealers operating under the Kimberley Process. None of this makes us special; it is the floor, not the ceiling.
One bench, four seats, and a casting room the size of a cupboard.
Around ninety finished pieces a year, two thirds of them engagement rings.
Two apprentices since 2009; both took four years and both still work in the trade.