ome women put their life story into words, in a novel; others weave their experiences into a fragrance or a line of clothing. Sandrine Thibaud chose to tell her story in gemstones and gold. Every Fullord collection is a chapter, a page torn from memories and transmuted into precious metal. “Fullord is my life told in jewellery,” she says, as though confiding a secret.
Her story begins in Cameroon where she was born, and her home until the age of 13 and a half. “Growing up in Cameroon in the 1970s was different. There wasn’t much for us to play with. We didn’t have dolls or anything like that, but my grandmother did have a small jewellery box and her jewellery became my favourite plaything, especially a filigree bracelet which I still have. I would gaze at those tiny links and wonder how it was possible to make something so delicate from something as hard as gold. That’s where my love of jewellery began, with my grandmother’s jewellery box.” The seeds for Sandrine Thibaud’s need to understand and create beauty were sown there, in a child’s wonder.
Her fondest memories are of Africa—until she had to leave the land she loved and called home to go to Europe, taking just a few possessions and her grandmother’s jewellery: symbols of an identity caught between two worlds. It was surely in that moment, in that rending, that Sandrine Thibaud first felt the need to transform the lead of life into gold.
The beginning: a scarf and a windy day
She was 19 when she landed her first job, in Marseilles, where she learned jewellery-making. She stayed for four years, leaving to help her new husband grow his business selling marine hardware. In fact the idea for Fullord—a contraction of foulard (scarf) and or (gold)—came while out on the open water. Tired of seeing her scarves blown out to sea, she imagined a scarf ring that could also be worn as a standalone jewel. Adjusted by a gold chain, it would be both practical and decorative. She found a workshop in Geneva which made the first prototype and she filed a patent.
Still, Sandrine Thibaud knew that she would need more than a scarf ring if she were to be taken seriously, and in July 2019 launched Fullord. In April 2023 she opened a manufacturing facility in Vincenza, followed in July that year by her first collection.
Nothing she creates is ever purely decorative. It is autobiographical: “I’d say ninety per cent of my jewellery comes from personal experience,” she says.
Masai, memories of a cherished land
Her second collection, Masai, springs from her African childhood. “Africa is a country you never forget. It’s where I was born, it’s where my roots are.” The Masai spear becomes protection, translated into jewellery as well as high jewellery. The Masai Triple Choker features three diamond-set spears on an open-front necklace, or worn as charms on marine cordage around a titanium core. Three worlds—Africa, the sea and jewellery—meld into one.
“This pointed jewel, it’s me, it’s my protection.” It’s an intimate, almost shamanic gesture. More than an adornment, this is jewellery that watches over its wearer.
Ghost, Stella, Ariane: fragments of oneself
Formed from a circle inside a square, the Ghost collection symbolises a woman who knows how to be simultaneously soft and strong. “As women, we shoulder a lot of pressure,” says Thibaud. “Ghost’s design is about a strong exterior around a softer interior. It’s one of my personal favourites, because it’s who I am.” Unsurprisingly, this is the shape she chose as Fullord’s logo.
Stella explores themes of guidance and destiny with star-shaped diamonds, a cut developed specifically for the collection. Magic happens as one of these stones is slipped onto the finger, sparkling in an incomparable way. “That’s because, unlike a brilliant, the stone is cut from every angle,” Sandrine Thibaud explains. Even if this does mean losing twenty-five per cent more of the rough during the cutting process.
The Ariane collection is about reconstruction: multiple fragments, some brushed, others polished, assembled into sculptures or, as Sandrine Thibaud muses, “pieces of my life put back together.” Last but not least, Eden is a joyous collection of citrus-shaped cocktail rings and pendants, featured in the hit series Emily in Paris, along with sparkling twists of lemon for the ears. In fact these Zest of Life earrings earned Fullord its place as one of the three finalists in the inaugural VicenzaOro Awards in January, in the Best in Icon | High-End Jewellery category.
Ethics that stay true to her origins
All Fullord’s gold is certified by the Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC). “I want to be able to sleep at night. I come from Africa. If I didn’t respect my origins, what kind of woman would I be?” Sandrine Thibaud employs 20 people at her facility in Vicenza and has invested in machines for platinum. However, behind the technology she is at pains to preserve handcrafting and artisanal skills such as engraving gold with such finesse, the finished piece resembles precious fabric.
Sandrine Thibaud founded Fullord in 2019 after spending 25 years in the world of sailing. Since launching in 2023, her jewellery has been spotted on screens around the world but, as she admits, she gets the biggest buzz from “being out and about, and seeing someone wearing one of my designs,” before adding “jewellery is a part of oneself.” It is a companion, a protection, handed down like her grandmother’s jewellery, still with her 40 years later.
Jewellery by Fullord is never an accessory. It is a bridge of gold joining continents, a talisman that wards off oblivion, a constellation of memories. From the silence of a jewellery box, it whispers tales of freedom regained, roots that run deep, the importance of staying true to oneself, and the capacity to marvel of a woman who has never stopped believing in her lucky star.
