A pleasant way to get to know Frédéric Andrès is to step inside his workshop, the Atelier Saint-Martin in Morillon. There, the skilled metalworker and craftsman puts his heart into designing, creating and forging his unique pieces in line with the purest of traditions and professional standards of the trade; an art for which he has been aptly rewarded and that he is now passing on.
Meet an artist from Morillon.
At his workshop nestling on the edge of Morillon, Frédéric Andrès creates and produces made-to-measure artworks, according to the expertise acquired during his journeyman years and reflecting his builder’s spirit.
Ironwork is the art and technique of forging iron with a swage or hammer.
Each piece designed and created at the Atelier Saint-Martin is unique. Monumental gates, staircases and other items are created under the watchful eye of King Salomon and Master Jacques, the symbols of journeymen and of this site. It took 300 hours of work to produce his last wrought-iron banister rail, a future jewel in a large Sallanches mansion.
“Some people come with their own models, others rely on my artistic creativity. And we like a job well done; each client is invited to follow the creation and production processes step-by-step,” he explains.
He forges the metal the traditional French way. He devotes his life to creating, forging and decorating, serving beauty itself. To be a skilled metalworker requires not only a command of the techniques and the material, but also a deep knowledge of art and the history of art, as well as the craftsmanship acquired by working alongside other metalworkers.
“Each project is a challenge, every piece is unique, and I’m still learning from my young trainees who are full of new ideas!” he emphasises.
To Frédéric Andrès, life is all about a commitment, to share and pass on all that he has learned.
A duty to transmit knowledge
With great enthusiasm, he passes on his art to his apprentices, one of whom, Camille Sennegon, was voted “Best Apprentice in France” in the metalwork category in 2020, with 3 gold medals and a score of 19.5/20 in January 2021, winning gold at national, regional and local levels. He is the pride and joy of his master who has guided him to this victory and continues to accompany his day-to-day learning of the art of ironwork:
“I take on apprentices because I was once in their shoes, when I started at the age of 15 in Saint-Etienne. I try to give them a solid basis. It will become second nature to them! My duty to pass on what I have learned seems natural to me, it’s part of caring about traditions. We are builders,” admits humbly Frédéric Andrès, whose passion for the built heritage that he helps to restore was inherited from his father, a carpenter
Craftsmanship by nature, journeyman by passion
Frédéric inherited his passion for the building trade, his craftsmanship expertise and his entrepreneurial spirit from his father, Jacques Andrès.
“I grew up in a caravan and the work sites where my father worked as a carpenter in the 1960s were my playground. I quit school in Year 8 and learned a trade instead.”
And after 3 years as an apprentice at La Giroudière in the Brévenne Valley, Frédéric Andrès began his travels around France, a 5-year journey of fraternity in the company of other journeymen who helped him develop and consolidate his noble art.
“These inspirations from the past and from French traditions, for which the creative driving force came from my elders during my journeyman years with the Association Ouvrière des Compagnons Serruriers du Devoir, are the basis for my metalwork activities, especially with iron and brass which I like to combine.”
And the artist’s works come to life at the Atelier Saint-Martin, whose coat of arms features the keys of Saint Peter. Named after Martin Andrès, an ancestor from the 17th century, his workshop opened 12 years ago in the village where his wife was born, La Rivière-Enverse, in the Haut-Giffre region.
Selected for the restoration of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris
Frédéric Andrès confides having learnt mirror welding at the foundry and taken artistic inspiration from France’s built heritage observed during his travels, heritage that he now helps to restore. He was pre-selected along with metalworkers from GMH (a group of historic monument restoration companies) to participate in an invitation to tender for the restoration and renovation of the ironwork at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, the ultimate recognition.
Since 2003, the expertise of Frédéric Andrès has been rewarded by some fifteen distinctions. His workshop, officially recognised as an “Atelier d’Art de France” since 2015 and certified as a living heritage business, became in June 2020 the first in Haute-Savoie to join the group of Historic Monuments restoration companies, of which there are only 10 in France. A rare distinction that makes Frédéric Andrès, an artist who has put down roots in the Haut-Giffre valley, very proud indeed. As do the 3 gold medals won by his apprentice. A good person who is committed to excellence the French way and whose blue eyes light up in wonder at the sight of the Criou mountain visible from his workshop.
“There’s no need to go far for a change of scene,” he concludes.
Interview by Laure Béchade, journalist
Photo by Gérard Gachignard