Every object is a stolen tale. Somehow, it’s always about stealing and refunding; it’s always about magpies, thieves and storytellers. Every glow turns into a story, with an urgency to put together every piece, crying out for patching, mending, reuniting. Objects sing, recount of dreams, memories and places; they are all born from the discovery of the small things that reveal another reality, like the revelation on spiders’ solitude that hide in the abandoned wasps nests, or the chemical reactions of oxidation that devours and dust metal’s surface, layer after layer, things on things after things untold.
The minimalism of the Japanese culture inspired me to make these rings. I believe that clothing and jewels are the extensions of ourselves into the world. It’s a rebellion against comfort and ordinariness, however my aim isn’t to be ostentatious. I wanted to make characteristically strong jewels with robustious style, that can emphasize the uniqueness of their holders.
I like to work on different levels of art, handicraft and design. I mix materials with a conceptual content, especially from the everyday life. I am a helpless collector of almost everything, trash and wasted things but also material from the nature, especially stones, shells and pieces of wood. The shape, condition and color are significant and therefore a thing must very often wait for the right moment to be explored and developed because I want to have a message or a story in my jewelry.
Her works have been displayed in 2016 at the Marzee Gallery, during the annual exhibit of graduates from worldwide contemporary jewelry schools. In spring 2017, Diana Pantea went back to Assamblage, this time filling the role of Teaching Assistant in the joints and locking mechanisms workshop. Presently she’s working on the development of contemporary jewelry artistic projects and also researching the history of jewelry.
“There cannot be any true innovation without the knowledge of what came before. Tradition and innovation, like mind and hand, need to move together”. Alchimia Contemporary Jewellery School was founded in 1998 in Florence; the birthplace of the Renaissance, a city known for its legacy of artisans and many cultural associations, a pulsating source of the arts and crafts, as well as history and intellectual achievements.
For me, a piece of jewelry is not worn. You wear it to let yourself be carried into its world. It is more than just an accessory which enhances a fashion context. It is a sign with its own message, creating unexpected relationships between an idea which has just discovered new means of expression and a shape, uniquely articulated by the juxtaposition of materials (silver, brass but also precarious materials encountered accidentally - pieces of wood, paper, etc). The jewelry becomes an unconventional collage, a metamorphosis of the initial purpose of the materials and also of the bearer which is in touch with it.
Architect, jewelry lover, jewelry maker. Proportion, color, texture - are architectural concepts that very much apply to jewelry making, you just need to find the appropriate materials and techniques to help you build a construction so tiny that you can wear on your finger.
Teodora Bota finds her inspiration during hot summer days, while she’s ceaselessly looking for a place to cool off. Throughout her collections, you can witness this desire unfold. In some of her works, she combined two mediums with temperatures sat at opposite poles, by pouring hot molting metal into a liquid and cold environment. During the impact, the silver took the shape of the surface of the water, gaining interesting, new, organic structures.
I’m very inspired by Berlin vibe and my day to day interaction with people, but most of my concepts and ideas are coming from introspection and epiphanies. I also feel very inspired in my cozy and intimate home. For me home, where I also have my studio, it is a safe and creative place. When stuck in the creative process, I like to listen to records with my childhood fairy tales. They always give me an incredible feeling of peacefulness.
In her artistic practice, she draws from her own life and experiences. Then she lets chance work its magic and bring in a certain gestural and effortless abstraction to the issues she feels passionate about. Petrut likes to experience with different materials and techniques, and to learn new ones in order to open up new paths of creation.
Ann Marie Shillito, MDesRCA: designer maker/jeweller, living and working in Scotland. She began designing digitally in 2D in 1990 in order to laser cut her refractory metals, titanium and niobium. Eight years later she moved to learning 3D Computer Aided Designing (CAD) for 3D printing. Frustrated with standard CAD programmes she became a research fellow in 1999 at Edinburgh College of Art to investigate why she struggled with it and to then research systems more suited to how designer makers work. Haptic technology proved pretty good for designing digitally in 3D. Haptics means touch: in this context, using a force feedback device to not only feel virtual things three dimensionally but also to navigate three dimensionally..
Although I went to Art school, in 1990, I’ve cut short my theater career and I became a journalist, hoping to be part of the change, to contribute to the new democracy I found myself in. However, I realized that being a journalist means to deal with some of the more uglier sides of life, so I felt the need to come back to art. This time it wasn’t theater, this time I chose jewelry.
My interest for drawing and handcrafting came to life in my childhood and has began to take shape during my studies at Art and Design University, in Cluj Napoca. Meanwhile I have also studied for 2 years abroad, in Belgium and Spain, where I focused mostly on illustration, painting and jewelry. I have taken my first steps in the art of jewelry at Assamblage. That’s where I’ve discovered myself, I received my theoretical knowledge, I’ve gained courage and a growing passion for this wonderful art form.
I never wanted to create embellishment, but to bring ideas to life. That is why my pieces seem to have become jewellery by mistake: some are very fragile, some too heavy. All of them are not easy to wear. Those wearing them have been impressed by the story behind them and can recognize themselves in the pieces.
Admitted to the jewelry design major of Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology In 2015, and graduated in June 2019. Has strong interest in narrative jewelry and is fond of using jewelry art as a medium to explore the society and reveal the connection between people. Currently studying in UAL-London Collage of Fashion, MA Fashion Artefect.
Horatiu Weiker has graduated from Ioan Andreescu Visual Arts Academy - painting specialization, in 2006. His works have been exhibited in both personal and group shows, before and after his 6 years of university, works which include caricatures, sculptures, decorative objects, but also functional ones. In the beginning of the ‘80s, his passion for jewelry came to life and after the sensational ‘89 Revolution, he gets the opportunity to develop into a jewelry designer, a status which immediately becomes permanent, jewelry design becoming both a passion and a job.
My pragmatic history led my steps for a few years through journalism, then some years through interior design, in order to settle later in the fascinating world of jewelry design, balancing me out. It’s where I found peace. From there on I was able to fly to infinity, as the journey moved on to an emotional realm. Today, I express myself through metal, through flame, through the stone's brilliance, through shape and color, the perfectly suitable way of communication for me. Therefore and the most important, my creations speak for me and by themselves, without a need for words.
Alexandra Ungurelu’s attention to detail is one of the main characteristics of her work, followed by the transposition of everyday influences, be it the city’s architecture or the textures found in nature, the resulting geometry is important and clear in her jewelry. The creative process transmits emotion as well as a message: every piece created by her is one meant to represent more than the joining of metal and precious stones, it is a symbol, made to travel both time and space.
My first contact with jewelry was when my roommate brought to the dorm two pliers, a burner, silver lining and a brass wire. Captivated by the spectacle of fire, the high temperatures, the fusion of incandescent metal and the new shapes that emerged from the process, I than forged my first ring. Later I added watch wheels, shards of glass, pieces of wood and other readily accessible materials and crafted a few new pieces. Curious by nature and with nerves of steel, the jewelry world bewitched me straight away.
