KIM BUCK

Today we are standing in Denmark's Thy National Park.

The one-year-old scenic area, bordered by the Limfjord and the North Sea, is a panoramic stretch of land housing forests, heath, grasslands, sand dunes, and lakes.

Denmark is also home of featured jewelry designer Kim Buck .

Buck is a bona-fide dichotomy who works with conventional jewelry design concepts, while at the same time defying the same conventions. Trained as both a goldsmith and silversmith, he opened his first workshop and gallery in 1990 creating designs for different companies including Danish jewelry house Georg Jensen. Buck designed the jewelry house's beautiful ring collections Eclipse, Centennary, and Nordic Summer.

From 1999 to 2001, he served as an associate professor for the School of Design and Crafts at Sweden's Göteborg University; and three years later, he accepted a position of visiting professor at Stockholm's Konstfack University College of Arts, Crafts, and Design for the Department of Metal Design.

Buck's contemporary jewelry includes his playful, inflatable brooches and bracelet made from gold foil; his literal take on the heart pendant; and his 24-karat gold ring that, due to its inherent softness, eventually reverts to its original form, a shapeless piece of pure gold. Buck's motivation is fueled by his belief that jewelry's true value is in its conceptualization, design, and artisanship not the raw materials used to create it.

His uncompromising approach won him a lifelong grant from the Danish Arts Foundation, and the Ole Haslund Artists Grant. Last year, Buck received the Red Dot Design Award for the product design of his Visby Porcelain Set. The porcelain set represents Buck's unusual concepts of form and functionality.
Instead of handles for his cups, Buck replaced them with a formation resembling a spout that fits more firmly in the hand.

He designed the plates with bulges, instead of a flat surface, to support other elements of the set.
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Photo 1 (top right): 18-Karat Gold Rings with Citrine, Smoky Quartz, and Rutilated Quartz from Nordic Summer Collection for Georg JensenPhoto 2 (bottom left): Stages of Disintegrating 24-Karat Gold Ring