Projects

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.

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.

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

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

Selected Artists at Friedrich Becker Prize 2020

 

Friedrich Becker Prize 2020 on Klimt02

Friedrich Becker Prize 2020

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.
 

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

“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

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

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