Matthieu Cheminée first came to jewelrymaking by watching Native American artisans in the western United States, then further developed his skills by working in dozens of workshops in several countries in West Africa. He went on to take formal training in Quebec, Canada at Ecole de joaillerie de Montréal. He has written three books, each of which provides previously unpublished research into the techniques, cultures and lives of individual artists. For this book, he devoted hundreds of hours over the course of three years to research, experiment and make several hundred chains, all the time taking photos to capture the process.