It is a few steps from the Yimby Rosemont complex, in the heart of La Promenade Masson, where Julie Verfaillie, alias the mechanical woman, chose in 2018 to set herself up on with the workshop-boutique bearing her name. She studied music and fine arts before becoming in 2012 what she calls a self-taught jeweller. She owes her job to her boundless curiosity! 

Portrait of the Yimby neighbourhood: Julie, the self-taught jeweller behind Femme Mécanique Designs

Portrait of the Yimby neighbourhood is a content series that presents the people behind the businesses helping to energize the neighbourhood where our residential complexes are located. By introducing local merchants, Yimby invites its community to soak up the neighbourhood beyond the apartments and common areas. We start the series by going to meet Julie Verfaillie. We took the opportunity to chat about responsible jewellery, her boutique and life in the neighbourhood where she has lived for 13 years.

Discovering jewellery thanks to a book

A brief flashback: It is 2012 and Julie’s boyfriend gives her a book about sculpting silver paste, which she is learning to work with. It is while having fun with the silver paste, which she bakes to turn it into sterling silver, that she comes to sell her creations on the Web, on Etsy, the popular online platform for selling personal and vintage creations. Thanks to different tutorials found in the world of YouTube, which she listens to with intense interest, Julie learns different techniques closer to what is done in jewellery.

“Over time, I developed a passion for the techniques and tools that are part of me and my art today.”

Artist and entrepreneur, all at the same time

After participating once in the Salon des métiers d’art, Julie’s creations become known and are sold in various shops. In mid-2014, she quits her then job to devote all of her time to her art. She starts by working from home before sharing a workshop with other jewellers and one day starting her own boutique, Femme Mécanique Designs, where she in turn welcomes the work of other artisans who share her environmental values. Today, she uses recycled metals and ethical stones and works with silver, gold, brass, bronze, filled gold and goes so far as make her own gold and rhodium plating. She now employs four people including her boyfriend and her sister, who is also a self-taught jeweller.

“Before I got into jewellery, I had a music project with my boyfriend where we nicknamed each other ‘the mechanical woman’ (la femme mécanique) and ‘the electric man’ (l’homme électrique). When I started my business, rather than using my name, like most people in the jewellery business, I decided to use this nickname which, at the same time, referred to my art which is practiced with a lot of tools.”

Slow, vegan and eco-friendly fashion, the choice she made for her boutique in Rosemont

Never mind if Julie’s business today sells various men’s and women’s eco-responsible fashion creations, bags, accessories, shoes, home accessories, decorations, body-care products, she doesn’t hold any tools or screws as the name might suggest. The vegan entrepreneur creates with respect for who she is, that is to say, a person who has at heart respect for the environment and others.

“Animal fat is often used to polish jewels. Everything I create is entirely responsible and vegan and what I keep in the boutique is as well.”

Julie points out that all the products she sells are products that she would buy herself. With her environmental values and strong ethics, she hopes to educate people to consume better and to understand that responsible alternatives exist to nearly every type of consumption, without forcing them to share her values. 

Reflecting the neighbourhood in which it’s located, Julie’s workshop-boutique welcomes people who live in Rosemont and others who visit it, people of different social classes, of multiple cultures, young and old alike.

“What I find most touching is when a family of several generations shows up in my workshop-boutique and leaves with a piece of jewellery for each person. It’s wonderful to think that we can please the grandma as much as the young teenager.”

Neighbourhood life that brings back a smile

Living in the neighbourhood for 13 years already, she walks to work from Monday to Saturday. With her workshop-boutique, she hopes to help brighten up the neighbourhood life of La Promenade Masson, which, for many, is the ideal neighbourhood for living in a big city like Montreal while having the pleasure of rubbing shoulders with small businesses. It is for this reason that Julie preferred to set up her workshop-boutique in a neighbourhood that is dear to her, rather than on a big commercial thoroughfare.

“I wanted a place that was going to allow me to have contact with people. Today, people come to see me, we do projects together and that is what makes me happy to have chosen La Promenade Masson.” 

It is not uncommon for people to come to her with a piece of jewellery that once belonged to a loved one, which they hope to reinvent, to the great pleasure of the latter who, by starting from an existing jewel to make a new one, echoes not only her environmental values but also her love for being near people. She plans to offer workshops to neighbourhood residents as soon as the situation allows.

“The locals are so friendly! Every day they inspire me to do more to invigorate my neighbourhood. In the end, neighbourhood life is about sharing, where everyone is doing their part: residents and merchants alike. For me, it is truly rewarding to be part of La Promenade Masson with Femme Mécanique Designs.”

Doesn’t this make you want to visit the neighbourhood? Discover the Yimby experience and have your own apartment in the heart of La Promenade Masson.