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©Zoë Montagu
©Zoë Montagu
©Zoë Montagu

Zoë Montagu

  • Tissage d'art
  • Weaver
  • Foix, France
  • Rising Star
Zoë Montagu Weaver
Contact
French, English
Hours:
By appointment only
Phone:
+33 686873691
©Zoë Montagu

The elegance of horsehair

  • • Zoë creates jewellery and textiles out of horsehair
  • • She applies basketweaving techniques to the infinitely small
  • • Collaborations are a major part of her work

Zoë Montagu’s creations celebrate the amazing fragility of horsehair. Through ancestral techniques that she learned during her year in Chile, she weaves the rigid fibre with an extremely fine gesture. Her work revolves around jewellery and ornaments, where she applies a circular weaving technique. In parallel, she further explores the qualities of horsehair on her loom, designing surprising textiles intended for different fields, such as upholstery, interior decoration, or haute couture. Zoë draws on her artistic background and her Métiers d'Art diploma in textile design to express her unique vision. As a horsewoman herself, her contact with this material since childhood is undoubtedly the secret behind her oh-so-poetic approach.

Read the full interview

Works

  • ©Zoë Montagu
  • ©Zoë Montagu
  • ©Zoë Montagu
  • ©Zoë Montagu
  • ©Zoë Montagu
Photo: ©Zoë Montagu
Cosmos brooch

Cosmos is a collection of contemporary jewellery created by Zoë Montagu and Mathilde Quinchez. Zoë creates micro-basketry: circular weavings handmade in horsehair. Mathilde then captures them in silver lace, piercing the precious metal for a see-through effect.

Photo: ©Zoë Montagu
Salomé

This textile piece belongs to the realms of craftsmanship and luxury. The fabrics were woven from horsehair by Zoë Montagu, then shaped and sewn by Marie Labarelle. Both feminine and animal, Salomé takes shape as a textile sculpture to be worn.

Photo: ©Zoë Montagu
Zhen ring

Zoë Montagu weaves horsehair and cotton until the fabric becomes a jewel. The fabric is set in silver by jeweller Hélène Barros. The Zhen jewellery collection evokes nature in its most sober form. The silver is finely worked, with a very precise gesture. It frames, protects, and embraces the weaving without constraining it.

Photo: ©Zoë Montagu
Flores earrings

These earrings are part of the collection called Trésor, the result of the collaboration between Zoë Montagu and Mélanie Salmon of Méloumoi. The mounts are gilded with fine gold in the Parisian workshops of Desbourdes. The circular weaving is made of horsehair and sisal. The Trésor collection reflects on a delicate and luminous style, simply chic.

Photo: ©Zoë Montagu
Mïa bracelet

This bracelet is part of the Mïa collection, a collaboration between Zoë Montagu and Jérémiah Oudin. It is both a jewel and a sculpture. Worn during the day, it is put down at night and thanks to its clever system of counterweights, it sits like a work of art. This creation embodies the link that its creators have forged between lightness and density, transparency, and opacity.

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