Spot the Designer - Atri Galván/ Spain
What did you want to be when you were a child?
I wanted to be many things, investigate the oceans, travel and learn languages, draw and design clothes ... I wanted to learn new things and be an explorer.
When have you started creating jewelry? How did this passion come about?
When I was a teenager, I began to make necklaces of beads, shells, plastics, then I asked my father to help me weld pieces of brass because I could not do it alone, years later when I finished my studies at the art and design school fashion, I started studying artistic jewelry to continue experimenting on my own.
What was your first project or significant piece for you and from what point of view?
My first piece was difficult to make because cutting the porcelain and shaping the metal it is not an easy work. It was a bracelet made from a broken coffee cup that I found, giving a new use and shape to a forgotten object. Each piece has a story behind it, think about where it could be, who could touch it, the objects that have been forgotten and lost.
How do you charge your batteries? What other passions and creative interests do you have?
I charge batteries creating new objects or projects, imagining and projecting how they will be, my head does not stop, it is always working and being able to shape my thoughts and that gives me energy, but always observing my surroundings. I also create characters costumes for movies, I love working with different materials and being able to touch them.
What does the connection between manufacturing tradition and contemporary design mean to you?
For me it is about using the new language of contemporary design but also the techniques and tools of classic jewelry.
Is there a self-portrait piece that speaks most about you?
The umbilical collection that I made with my father (industrial mechanic) when I found out he was sick, I wanted to do something with him and be able to have him with me forever. There are many places inside of me and one of them is my father's workshop.
This collection is a tribute to him and his profession, a union of his world so great and powerful and the world of jewelry so delicate and small/tiny at times ... but both so united. Since I was a child, I have seen how he created and joined strong and durable pieces, how fire and metal were transformed ... those sparks when welding, making the weld cord with that shape and metallic color ... they stayed in my memory, they stayed in me.
I asked him to make some welding cords and I have taken molds from the pieces and the slag and then cast them in silver, creating a whole collection, playing with the shapes adapting them to the body / With these solder pieces you will be able to see lava, organic shapes, imagined shapes ... I see a girl playing in her father's workshop creating a union of these two complex worlds, with so much technique and knowledge behind. To my father. Hildo.
Which material have you not yet used is a temptation and a challenge for you?
As for the way to make the jewels, I would like to start using 3d printers, bioplastics.
How was the pandemic period for you as a jewelry designer?
It was a time to think, to go to another rhythm, to connect with more jewellers through networks with projects such as Hand Medal Project” with exvotos or creating a piece of jewelry every week with elements that I had at home, for example, onions, my cat & hairballs, etc. and showing it to other artists.
How do you see the future of contemporary jewelry?
I believe that it will continue to develop through new materials and technology and that it reaches more people who can understand it and see contemporary jewelry in a different way. That every time people want to wear contemporary jewelry pieces.
Find more about the designer Atri Galván