ITUJA
“How does a necklace make you feel if you take care of it, grow it for 7 days, and then you can only wear it for 12 hours?”
“I wanted to explore how things can be momentary, how things can be there for only a little while, and how do we feel about things like that. The necklace is made of 100% Alfa Alfa seeds and it is grown only with sunlight and water. It takes 7 days to grow and then you can wear it for approximately 12 to 24 hours, you can even eat it if you want. So it was more of a conceptual way of expressing that something fragile and momentary can be as beautiful as diamonds and gold, or whatever you want to wear.”
Forget Me Not
“We forget too often where our roots come from. We embrace ourselves in lies and hide behind them. Jewellery should not be based on lies. It is something very beautiful and should carry pleasant memories from the beginning till the end. The jewellery collection is designed to tell a real story without frills, just the truth. It is designed to highlight the materials, the techniques and the idea behind the collection.
Eternity was something that I wanted to involve in designing this jewellery collection. Precious metal jewellery is one of the oldest ways of telling about our culture. For thousands of years gold and silver have been accepted as a way of telling a story. This story is extremely important and should not be depreciated. But with our ways of consumption, telling a story has become meaningless. We don’t care who was involved in the process of making a piece or where the materials came from. With this jewellery, I decided to tell the whole story. To use recycled materials and let the consumer in on the little secrets of the trade.”
“The jewellery collection is designed to tell a real story without frills, just the truth. It is designed to highlight the materials, the techniques and the idea behind the collection.”
“I wanted ‘Forget Me Not’ to be aesthetically minimalistic. In designing minimalistic jewellery there is always a risk of making something boring. For the line of rings I wanted to incorporate rhythm and find elements from music to bring the collection to life. Firstly, you must find the right rhythm to create a beautiful melody. Using this way of thinking, I was able to create a coherent combination of shapes and surfaces that together created a beautiful rhythm.”
Words by Ida Thompson Coon
Curated by Hanna-Amanda P.G.