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News

Upcoming Event
Steinbeisser experimental gastronomy, Dornach (SUI)

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On August 30th and 31st 2024,

Steinbeisser will bring renowned chefs Elif Oskan and Selassie Atadika to the Goetheanum in Dornach celebrating the 100th anniversary of biodynamic farming. Elif Oskan and Selassie Atadika will create a special plant-based tasting menu using biodynamic produce from the Goetheanum garden. Biodiversity serves as inspiration for the artists who will craft bespoke ecological pieces that will merge the table into a total work of art. Experimental Gastronomy is a unique immersive experience that brings together acclaimed chefs and artists to create an exciting and radically different way of enjoying food.

Elif Oskan & Selassie Atadika

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For this occasion, Elif Oskan and Selassie Atadika join forces to serve a plant-based tasting menu combining ingredients sourced from biodynamic and organic producers in Switzerland.

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Experimental Gastronomy
“Why do we eat the way that we do and are there other options?” With this question in mind, Steinbeisser explores new ways to eat mindfully. Artists will work with us to seek answers by creating new kinds of cutlery, tableware and textiles that disrupt the conventions of dining. These unique pieces made from storm wood, flax, mycorrhiza, seaweed and carrots, will enrich the dining experience in the most unexpected way. The artworks will be for sale at the dinners and on jouwstore.

 

Steinbeisser

EXEMPLA 2024
Internationale Handwerksmesse, Munich

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EXAMPLA 2024 - Natural stone

EXEMPLA 2024 highlights the versatility of natural stone, a material that plays a central role from pyramids to modern works of art. Visitors can admire the skills of stonemasons and stone sculptors in living workshops that demonstrate both traditional and innovative techniques. The show not only highlights the historical significance of natural stone, but also its role in modern design and technology, such as granite e-charging stations. A special focus is on the regional diversity of the material, from Altmühltal to South Tyrolean natural stone, and highlights the outstanding craftsmanship that anchors natural stone in our culture and society.

From February 28th, 2024 to March 3rd, 2024, the Idar-Oberstein campus represented the art of gemstone cutting at the International Craft Fair in Munich as part of the EXEMPLA special show.

We are pleased that we were able to present the world of gemstone processing at the EXEMPLA special show with a small team and a few students from the Trier Campus Idar-Oberstein University! The visitors had the opportunity not only to admire, but also to actively participate - an experience that was well received!
Not only were we able to share information about our studies, but we were also able to showcase the impressive pieces of our graduates. It was a good opportunity to share our passion for gemstones and their processing.
A thank you to the Munich and Upper Bavaria Chamber of Crafts with Barabra Schmidt, Angela Böck, Wolfgang Lösche, Michael Härteis and many more for this opportunity!

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Exempla IHM 2024

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News Hochschule Trier

ROCKSTARS
BeCraft in Mons

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Let’s rock!

On 19.11.2023, the curtain will rise on the ROCKstars of the Gemstone and Jewellery course from Idar-Oberstein at the BeCraft premises in Mons, Belgium. BeCraft is a professional association representing the applied arts in the Walloon and Brussels regions. BeCraft works in conjunction with the "World Crafts Council" and is primarily dedicated to promoting young talent. The setlist of ROCKstars includes over 250 hits and new releases by the alumni of the Idar-Oberstein Campus. The exhibition presents exclusive works from the permanent loan collection of the Idar-Oberstein Campus. After graduation, each student hands over one or more pieces of jewellery from the graduation collection to the university’s collection: they are declarations of love, experimental snapshots or rebellious works that freely interpret the theme of jewellery.

 

At the Idar-Oberstein campus, the newcomers to the jewellery scene have dedicated themselves heart and soul to the intensive examination of materials.

Idar-Oberstein, at the same time a world trading centre for gemstones and a place of study in absolute seclusion, is the rehearsal room for the students, where they break the existing structures and develop progressive designs.

 

The ROCKstars are guest performers at BeCraft until 18.02.24.

Opening 18.11.2023, 7 pm

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BeCraft

37. Graduation Show
Galerie Marzee, Nijmegen (NL

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Selected for the 37. international Graduation Show at Galerie Marzee

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August 6 - October 18, 2023

The Marzee Graduate Show takes place once a year from August to October, with selected pieces of jewelry and objects by graduates from universities around the world.

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Galerie Marzee

20th Silver Triennal
Goldschmiedehaus Hanau

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With the worldwide competition Silbertriennale International, the Gesellschaft für Goldschmiedekunst e.V. and the Deutsches
Goldschmiedehaus have been supporting the silversmithing scene since 1965. In this year's exhibition, 67 selected artists will present compelling ideas for silver design that address the new demands of the silversmithing trade. This year, we are once again pleased to be able to award prizes to three outstanding positions in the main competition and even five up-and-coming artists.

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The exhibition catalog was published by Arnoldsche Verlag.


With a contribution by Francesco Colli and a foreword by Hartwig Rohde and Christianne Weber-Stöber.
 

Publication LithoMania
on the other hand

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Precious stones - whether as part of a collection or processed into engravings and jewels - have fascinated people for thousands of years. They trigger longings that often put ethical concerns in the background. Their mining is the cause of bloody conflicts; processing and trade, on the other hand, bring people from the most remote regions of the world together. LithoMania: Students at the Idar-Oberstein Campus are dealing with these ambivalent tendencies. As part of the exhibition series Design Lab of the Berlin Museum of Decorative Arts, they present their reflections on this weighty material in objects, drawings, photographs and texts. The sketchy documentation visualizes the process and gives the material back a lightness with which new approaches and a freedom in artistic expression become possible.
 

Arnoldsche Art Publischer

Exhibition
from the jauntiness of absence
A-Gallerii, Tallin (EST)

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“Every piece has a story, a journey to become what it is. We believe that objects, drawings, sketches- the things we create while making the actual jewellery- are as important as the finished pieces themselves. Through them, we study material, from meaning. They lead us to the essence of our creations.”

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– Natascha Frechen, Felicia Mülbaier, Constanza Salinas & Luisa Werner

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The exhibition is accompanied by a publication that will be launched at a public presentation and a talk with the artists on August 14 in the courtyard of Hobusepea 2 studio house.

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A Gallerii

Exhibition
Rockstars, Pforzheim (DE)

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Let's rock!
On 06.11.2020 the curtain opened for the ROCKSTARS of the gemstone and jewelry department from Idar-Oberstein in the showroom of the family business Robert SCHÜTT Witwe in Pforzheim. The setlist includes 50 hits and new releases by the alumni and students from the Idar-Oberstein campus from the last five years.

The ROCKSTARS present works that revolve around the eternal material in jewelry: They are declarations of love, experimental snapshots or rebellious works around gemstones. Until February 13, 2021, the ROCKSTARS will make a guest appearance at Schütt, parallel to the traveling exhibition Fe - Stahlpreis 2020 Wismar, Hasselt, Lappeenranta - three countries, three cities, three schools, which will be shown at the Pforzheim Jewelry Museum in the Reuchlinhaus.

It is not surprising that Schütt invited the university from Idar-Oberstein on the occasion of the company's 130th anniversary.

As the most important stone trading company in Pforzheim, there has been a close relationship with Idar-Oberstein for many years. Schütt had an Idar-Oberstein branch for decades, ensuring a steady flow of the best gemstones to Pforzheim.

At the Idar-Oberstein campus, newcomers to the jewelry scene have dedicated themselves heart and soul to the intensive study of gemstones. Idar-Oberstein, at the same time world trade center for gemstones of all kinds and place of study in absolute seclusion, is for the students the rehearsal room, in which they break the existing structures and develop progressive designs.

The ROCKSTARS, the students and alumni appear with contemporary jewelry pieces that not only show the material gemstone in unexpected and unconventional applications, but at the same time redefine elements of a centuries-old gemstone aesthetic.

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Rockstars publication at Arnoldsche

Rockstars exhibition at SCHÜTT

Dterra Award 2019
at Joya, Barcelona (ES)

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This award is aimed at students from all over the world who explore and investigate new ways of applying craftsmanship to their pieces. The winner receives to spend 15 days in our workshop, being able to use all our infrastructures and knowledge to experiment and create a new project.

The winner of DTERRA AWARD 2019 was Natascha Frechen, a student of the Hochschule trier Idar-oberstein in Germany. Natascha conquered us with her delicate work with agate stone, with pieces full of movement, minimalist and very well resolved technically.

She spent fifteen days with us, and in that time she experimented mainly with ceramics, with which she achieved fantastic results. These are some of the pieces she created and in our Instagram you can see some of her experimentation!

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Joya Barcelona

Dterra

Brooches in Dialogue
at Villa Bengel, Idar-Oberstein (GER)

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Broschen im Dialog zwischen Vergangenheit und Avantgarde

12.07.2024 – 11.10.2024, Villa Bengel, Idar-Oberstein

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12 Alumni und Studierende der Hochschule in Idar-Oberstein wählten sich eine Brosche aus einer bedeutenden privaten Sammlung klassischen Schmucks und schaffen mit einer neu angefertigten Kreation einen spannenden Bogen zwischen Historie und Avantgarde. Unter Einsatz von neuen Werkstoffen und neuen technischen Möglichkeiten zeigen diese KünstlerInnen, dass einem traditionellen Schmuckstück die Idee einer zeitgenössischen Umsetzung gegenübergestellt werden kann.

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Villa Bengel

Deutsches Goldschmiedehaus

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Winner of the New Talents Award
Klimt02 Barcelona

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The New Talent Award by Klimt02 aims to recognize the work of graduate students by supporting their careers in the professional world. In this 9th edition, our school members submitted a total of 23 candidates to take part in the award.

This year's winner is Natascha Frechen graduate of Hochschule Trier in Germany.
 

This is the Ninth Edition of the New Talents Award by Klimt02.

The winner of the New Talent Award 2023 is 

Natascha Frechen, who graduated from Hochschule Trier, where she studied under Prof. Ute Eitzenhöfer and M.F.A. Levan Jishkariani.

The Prize consists of a professional jeweller profile at klimt02.net and an exhibition at Hannah Gallery Barcelona by Klimt02.

Klimt02 2023 Jury decided to award Natascha Frechen.
Natascha tests the quality of its technique when working with minerals: jaspers, agates, jades... starting from the classical ancient technique of carving, she is giving a completely contemporary look to her pieces. It is remarkable how, through technique and knowledge of the matter, she captures the soul of the materials and manages to give them the appearance of "objets trouvés" (as if they were raw found stones), where the perception of the viewer and wearer is of minimal manipulation and intervention.

Ute Eitzenhöfer Guiding Teacher at the school, states:
Natascha Frechen's work is located at the boundaries of body, soul and nature. She works the solid stone material with sculptural quality and pushes it to its limits. Taken from nature, she gives it a form that makes the human influence clear, but still allows the originality of its source to be recognised. With her works, she wants to make a process visible, an experience of the passing of time.

Natascha Frechen states:
Objects are the medium of expression. connect us with the material world as well as the immaterial world. Objects can contain emotions, and transform immaterial aspects, such as thoughts into the material world. They occupy an intermediate position between the material world in that they are created from matter but charged with the immateriality of the meaning we give them. In objects, the human desire for immortality is shown. Through objects we express our subjectivity, our attachment to the material world and our participation in it, as well as our desire to connect with it.

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Klimt02

M.F.A. Graduation work 2023

Hochschule Trier, Campus Idar-Oberstein

Broschen im Dialog zwischen Vergangenheit und Avantgarde
Deutsches Goldschmiedehaus Hanau

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Twelve Graduates of Trier University of Applied Sciences, specializing in gemstones and jewelry
in Idar-Oberstein were invited to enter into a dialog with a historical historical brooch. Using new materials and the technical materials and the technical possibilities of our time, exciting creations were
on the subject of brooch jewelry.
Works by contemporary jewelry artists build a bridge to today: Sharareh Aghaei (MFA 2027), Catalina Brenes (MFA 2016), Patrícia Domingues (MFA 2014), Natascha Frechen (MFA 2022), Tatjana Giorgadse (Dipl. 2012), Mira Kim (MFA 2019), Felicia Mülbaier (MFA 2019), Julia Obermaier (BFA 2016), Sonia Pibernat (MFA 2018), Constanza Salinas (MFA 2022), Danni Schwaag (Dipl. 2008) and Edu Tarín (MFA 2015).


On the basis of almost 150 historical brooches from a
from a German private collection spanning three centuries, the the development of the brooch, taking into account the different fashions impressively. The diverse design approaches are impressive: floral decoration, figurative scenes, portraits scenes, portraits, architectural and landscape depictions were implemented were realized in the smallest format according to the general fashion. The selected exhibits reflect classicism, the Victorian era, the Victorian era, the Belle Époque, Art Nouveau, Art Deco and the modern era modernism that began after 1945.


Thursday, November 2, 2023

to Sunday, April 7, 2024
in the German Goldsmiths' House Hanau

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Deutsches Goldschmiedehaus
 

Unfolding Jewellery Group
Graduation group of Idar-Oberstein

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Unfolding Graduation Group from Department of Gemstones and Jewellery at the Trier University of Applied Sciences / Campus Idar-Oberstein.

10 jewellery graduates from 8 different countries with masters and bachelors degree in gemstone and jewellery teamed up to do the first steps into our professional life as jewellery artists.

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During our studies we had to constantly adapt, firstly to Idar-Oberstein after moving here, then by the circumstances the whole world was under during the pandemic and the lock-down. Like everyone else, we had to stay at home for a time, away from the workshops, finding new materials and ways to work. Last semester we had to be quick to adapt and move once again when our school burned down. Some had to redo all their graduation work, or study a semester longer. But we made it. We are here. Ready to pack again and go on tour to show our work to the world and prepared for the next chapter after this adventurous study.

 

Our works are as varied as we are, we are stepping out of the box. The jewellery we make is not necessarily what one expects when hearing jewellery design, there is even graduates who do not work making jewelry, but focus on body related art.

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In 2023 we have been exhibiting at Inhorgenta Munich and IHM Munich |DE.

Our next stop will be Sieraad Art Fair in Amsterdam |NL from May 18 to 21 2023.

Exhibition LithoMania, Berlin (DE)
with Video project
on the other hand

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The exhibition Design Lab #11.

LithoMania is part of the series Design Lab of the Kunstgewerbemuseum in Berlin, in cooperation with the Department of Gemstones and Jewellery at the Trier University of Applied Sciences / Campus Idar-Oberstein.

 

The students explore new perspectives in the artistic use of gemstones and place the traditional stones in a modern context. Ethical questions of stone mining and the examination of ambivalent properties of the stones also flow into the experimental works of the students.

The exhibition is curated by Claudia Banz and Theo Smeets.

Design Lab. #11 - LithoMania

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on the other hand talks about people’s life revolving about stones. It is presenting in a series of interviews an inside perspective on what means to work and live with stones in Idar–Oberstein, Germany’s stone capital.

Traders, carvers and engravers were invited to tell their own stories and professional experiences when dealing, cutting and living inside the stone world with the intention to open a view mainly hidden from the general public. From where they began, the history of the city, the buying and transporting of stones to the emotion of connecting and creating a piece out of stone. This project presents short testimonials on such topics displaying the differences and similarities among the stories and life experiences.  

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These interviews have the aim to reveal to the general public a different view on what is known about the stone world in the small sphere of the city Idar-Oberstein.

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on the other hand wants to scrap the tip of the iceberg to understand better the social, political, economic and artistic mindset that constructs what is so fascinating and mysterious about stones and emphasis answers to questions such as: How does the stone trade work in reality? How much time and effort does it take to work in stone? What are the changes happening in the past, today and the future? Those are the leading questions to increase awareness and value to this material and the people behind this business in an unexpected way.

Exhibition
from the jauntiness of absence
Deutsches Goldschmiedehaus Hanau (DE)

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The four jewelry artists Constanza Salinas, Felicia Mülbaier, Luisa Werner and Natascha Frechen got to know each other during their studies in Idar-Oberstein and last year developed the concept for their exhibition as part of "Parcours Bijoux 2020". The focus is on the work with the stone, the artistic process, supplemented by marginal notes and drawings.

"(...) In a long, intensive process, the successive removal of material exposes a new form that seemed hidden inside the stone. Through the interaction of material, body and mind, a new work forms in our hands. Each piece tells its own story, that of the process of creation it has gone through. Objects, drawings, sketches... are as important to us as the finished jewelry itself. They usually disappear unseen in drawers, but play an important role in the creative process. Through them we explore material, form, content and background, they teach us to recognize the essence of our work. (...)".

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Deutsches Goldschmiedehaus

Book
from the jauntiness of absence

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Companions. Marginal Notes to the Approach and the Process of Artistic Creation.

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"There are places that let you fall back on yourself. Where there is no hustle and bustle, no breathlessness, hardly anything to distract the gaze from one’s own self. Such a place can be narrow, like a valley cut into the rock, but at the same time generous, in terms of what nature bestows on the beholder."


Artists Natascha Frechen, Felicia Mülbaier,
            Constanza Salinas & Luisa Werner
Exhibition design support Kathrin Ulanicki
Book design and Visual identity Leonie Vogel
Studio pictures Lisa Villinger
 
Book ISBN 978-3-00-067986-5 / Postcard edition

Measurements: 24 x 17 x 0,5 cm
Pages: 55
Pictures: 39
Price: € 19,50 + shipping

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Order at from the jauntiness of absence

Publication on Klimt02

Companions on Klimt02

Friedrick Becker Preis (DE)

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