Brigita Bivainytė (Lithuania) - Global Design Graduate Award

BRIGITA BIVAINYTÉ

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Biography:

I am Lithuanian jewellery artist currently based in Lithuania, Vilnius. My journey as jeweller started quite early as pettiness, attention to the detail and perfectionism have been a part of my life as long as I can remember. Since childhood most of my free time was spent by the beach, collecting smallest treasures from nature, such as seashells, pieces of amber and colourful glass bits from the Baltic Sea, which most of the time would be turned into some sort of wearable object. Thus, my precision in combine with my passion for arts made a great combination in order to become a jeweller and as soon as I have graduated High School in 2017 I enrolled into “The Glasgow School of Art” in order to pursue my dream. Finally, in 2021 I graduated from “The Glasgow School of Art” receiving bachelor’s degree with honours in silversmithing and jewellery design with my most influential collection “Metamorphosis of Grain”. Besides, “Metamorphosis of Grain” has been noticed and awarded in 2021 New Designers national competition by “The Goldsmith’s Company”. This collection became imperative for me not only because it was marking the end of stage of life as a student, it also formed my identity as an artist and made an impact to my future projects. While working on my degree collection I started to examine my heritage, culture and soon I understood that my cultural identity not only shapes my personality, it helps me to stand out and be seen as an artist. Till nowadays many of my pieces are inspired by Lithuanian culture, coast of Baltic Sea and my childhood, while within each piece I try to recreate essence of my homeland by mimicking textures, colours and shapes of Lithuania’s scenery, fauna and flora in a form of a wearable objects made from precious materials.

Collection concept:

In Lithuania, shapes of wheat, rye, seeds. Sun symbols, certain stones (amber), folkan instinct to survive, often under oppressive regimes. In fact, the dark ryeand cultural identities of the past and formed by contemporary aesthetics.arts, Lithuanian traditions are considered obsolete, their meanings subsumed inassociated with sun, growth, and crops such as wheat, signified independence, andbread, known as Agota’s bread, is sanctified in the country and is celebrated on theclosely connected to land, climate and agriculture. Until recently, the countrydesign practice, this body of work explores deeply Lithuania’s heritage, with eachfeast of St. Agnes. The series of designs presented here are intended to evoke thesehistoric symbols continue to resonate with Lithuanian people is because they arehistory and identity. For this collection, these historical signifiers are incorporatedimportant and Significant meanings in jewellery objects, representative of nationmodern forms of technology and mass production. However, unlike current art andoperated under a predominantly agrarian economy and therefore, elementspiece carrying meanings relevant to previous folkloric stories. The reason that thesesongs, woven textiles and costumes, all contribute to the country's rich culturalwithin a twenty-first century approach to designing and making. As with many folk