Fashion weeks and other assorted things that have been on my mind recently have taken quite a lot of space on this blog in the last few days, so I have neglected for a long time writing about one of my obsessions, jewellery. Just a couple of days ago, the “Swedish Fashion: Exploring a New Identity” exhibition opened at London’s Fashion and Textile Museum and jewellery obsessively came back to my mind. I mentioned this exhibition a while back in a previous post, but since the exhibition opened I discovered that it is also accompanied by an interesting showcase about Swedish jewellery designers.
Entitled “The Dreamer and the Dream” this mini-exhibition features eleven Swedish jewellery artists: Åsa Lockners, Pia Aleborg, Dada’s Diamonds, Aud Charlotte Ho Sook Sinding, Sofia Bjorkman, Sissi Westerberg, Sara Engberg, Annika Åkerfeldt, Henrik Brandt, Helena Lindholm and Auli Laitinen.
I must admit that, when it comes to jewellery, I’m simply biased since I absolutely love it, indeed, if it were up to me, I would probably go around attired like one of those statues of Madonnas entirely covered in ex-votoes (the art of adornment always fascinated me…), but I assure you that, though they are different one from the other, each of these talented designers has a strong aesthetics since they consider jewellery as something that can evoke memories, tell stories and even send out messages.
Åsa Lockner cleverly mixes materials such as silver and gold with wood, amber or gems. Often her pieces have a sort of vintage quality about them and look as if they had been found in an old trunk lost for centuries in an attic or on a secret beach.
Inspired by everyday life, Pia Aleborg creates instead modern pieces in which oversized shapes and geometric forms in different materials create contrasts with the simple chains on which they are mounted. Aleborg’s necklaces are the sort of pieces that can dress up even the simplest shirt thanks to their bold shapes and colours.
Since launching their first collection in 2005, Dada’s Diamonds’ founders Ida Forss and Kajsa Oberg experimented with pieces inspired by novels, black magic, lucky charms and love, mixing with these inspirations with a healthy dose of surrealism and developing a range in sterling silver and gold that features various techniques such as oxidization and 23 carat gold plating, used to highlight details or to get interesting colour contrasts.
A graduate of the School of Design and Crafts at the University of Göteborg, Aud Charlotte Ho Sook Sinding creates oversized pieces that have a special and surreal beauty about them. Birds, flowers, fruit and animals are carved out of mixed materials, though Sinding has a penchant for silicone, a material that she cleverly employs in her most theatrical pieces.
Sofia Björkman (also owner of the Platina Gallery in Stockholm where most of the designers currently exhibited at London's Fashion and Textile Museum can also be found) uses instead her jewellery to explore topics such as communication, time, memories and identity. Moving from one simple concept – a piece of jewellery can reveal who you are, where you come from and what you want to be – and using bits and pieces of wood, scraps and different metals Björkman has recently created a collection that focuses on the “House” theme, conceiving a house as a space that can contain different lives, styles, thoughts, feelings and memories.
While developing conceptual projects with the S-U-B artist/craft/design collective with Ulf Samuelsson and Benjamin Slotterøy, Sissi Westerberg has also developed an interest in silicone jewellery. Her pieces often have as starting point the concept of body-adornment, but are mainly used to analyse different ideas and perceptions, such as intimacy and belongingness.
Born in Finland, Annika Åkerfeldt, graduated in Jewellery Art and Design at HDK, Gothenburg, and is now living and working in Stockholm. Her work can be considered as having a sort of double purpose, since when you don’t wear her jewels – mainly made with metal and porcelain – you can use them as pieces of interior décor.
While Henrik Brandt can be considered more as a metalware artist able to create unique art pieces rather than simple jewellery, Helena Lindholm prefers to incorporate unusual objects in her designs.
Her most recent collection was inspired by a special childhood dream: as a child Lindholm often longed to have a horse. Her longing remained unfulfilled, but she transformed her memories of that particular childhood dream into objects such as horse brushes, pony heads and tails around which she created various pieces of jewellery, from necklaces to earrings. Lindholm's previous collections featured bizarre and unusual objects or materials, employed to create almost a story for each piece of jewellery.
Auli Laitinen has experimented not only with various materials – from metal to men’s ties, old blouses and curtains – but also with some interesting topics such as the social implications behind body piercing. Indeed, Laitinen conceives her jewellery not as something to adorn one's body, but as proper conversation pieces that can carry messages and stir debates and dialogues.
Sara Engberg, one half of the Mori & Mimosa design duo (the other half being Christina Wemming) remains one of my favourite designers. Sara produces contemporary jewellery inspired by things that happen in her life or that she sees around her.
Usually her pieces are incorporated in Mori & Mimosa’s clothes, creating what the duo defines as “Jewellery Art Couture”. I have a few pieces by Sara, among them a mirror dragonfly necklace, a pink cloud and tassel necklace and two swan brooches.
I love each of them, but the swans have assumed a new life in my wardrobe as I often wear them on a hat from my mum’s collection.
The brooches are quite big, so the striking effect is guaranteed on any garment you pin them on.
I met Christina and Sara almost two years ago in their studio in Stockholm and in that occasion Sara explained me that she isn’t usually inspired by other designers but by the things that surround her and that touch her heart. The inspiration for the brooches came for example from two swans that lived near her house.
Mori & Mimosa recently took part in a billboard project entitled "Rookies coaching Rookies" that kicked off today in Stockholm (during the second part of Stockholm Fashion Week). The project was launched in collaboration with the Berghs School of Communication and the Swedish Fashion Council. You can read more about the project in my interview with Sara for Dazed Digital.
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