Alone amid imposing belt-driven machines, Clémence shapes, polishes, and repairs. In this workshop, frozen in time since 1890, she keeps the capital’s very last crystal workshop alive. Behind the white-lettered storefront of Cristallerie Schweitzer, the artisan fights a daily battle to preserve a historic craft, now threatened by a lack of staff and funding.
Clémence joined the company in November 2009; she fell in love with this craft at the age of sixteen. Today, she restores glass and crystal objects entrusted to her by customers—pieces that often hold deep sentimental value. From chipped glasses to imposing, finely engraved red crystal fruit bowls, every piece that comes through her hands tells a story. Working with the material, creating designs, and making repairs all require meticulous attention to detail. Restoring a single large bowl can take an entire day of work at the workbench.
A daily life balanced between craftsmanship and crisis management
With no team to support her, she must constantly juggle greeting customers, answering phone calls, and the demanding manual work in the workshop. Her organization relies on order books filled with index cards and a whiteboard where urgent priorities, accounting, and the progress of repairs are all jumbled together. Clémence points out that simply having one more person in the workshop would allow orders to move forward while she focuses on customer service.
Despite a particularly difficult period recently, the artisan refuses to give up and keeps smiling. Deeply in love with her work, she adapts and rolls up her sleeves to save this workshop, which is designated as a heritage craft site. To make up for this lack of funds and ensure the workshop’s long-term survival, a crowdfunding campaign has been launched to provide financial support to help the crystal workshop overcome the crisis.