KAROLINA BIK

24K Gold Plated Bulwa Ring

Complete with “a maze of tunnels and hallways, towers and rooms,” Poland’s Malbork Castle is a visual wonder.  

Built during the 13^th century it is a portal through time into the “lifestyle of the Teutonic Knights.”  Poland is also home to featured jewelry designer Karolina Bik.

ANA CARDIM

One of Portugal's most beautiful regions is the picturesque Algarve Coast. With its high cliffs, rock formations, fine sands, and crystal waters, it is a fantastic locale for relaxing and enjoying breathtaking surroundings. Portugal is also the home of featured jewelry designer Ana Cardim.


Like other designers who create wildly distinctive conceptual jewelry, Cardim is clearly not afraid of stepping outside the norm.

Educated in Spain, Portugal, and the United States of America, Cardim's work epitomizes what I feel constitutes the conceptual style. It is thought provoking, comical, and whimsical while ultimately wearable.

Even though I understand enthusiasts' love for the classic, timeless designs of someone like Neil Lane or the Cartier brand, I also feel the public has a taste for the unique and idiosyncratic.

From what I have seen, conceptual jewelry often conveys poignant yet humorous reflections of the human condition rather than objects of endearment. Even if people shy away from wearing Cardim's pieces they certainly invite attention and conversation.

Such "device" pieces as Clean Your Mind, Garbage Pin, and Urban Help, reveal a sophisticated and thoughtfully conceived design approach. "The jewel device is itself a place that inhabits a mobile place: the body," she explains.

"The jewel's place of support, the body, is a place of communication that, at the same time, carries it to different places. In this sense, the jewel can be understood as a place of dialectic between the private space of the wearer and the public space he or she carries it.

This mobility reconfigures the jewel as social communicator; an expression device generator of critical speech in the public space."

Cardim amalgamates such materials as silver, acrylic, tiny paper rolls, bubble wrap, and even hot peppers and puts a decidedly new twist on statement-making jewelry. Her socially conscious items are geared towards societal emotional or spiritual cleansing.

The humorous Clean Your Mind Pin is a vivid, miniature facsimile of a toilet paper roll. The piece's purpose is simple; to help rid the mind of worry and anxiety.

"You pull the hygienic paper, break it in a desired measure, and write down any personal problem or worry," Cardim explains.

You visualize that the problem is not going to worry you anymore, and you throw the paper in the toilet. You repeat this process as many times as needed. The piece serves as a catharsis vehicle."

Composed of a simple sterling silver ring, and small plastic bag, The Garbage Pin's function is along the same lines. "This jewel device calls on the current urban, social pattern that confronts the notions of waste and worth," she says.

"The piece can be symbolic, a place to keep memories of the day-to-day, small nothings. The piece acquires new meanings to whoever uses it so its symbolic value is confirmed through the manner in which it is used."

It is always refreshing to see jewelry designers veer off the beaten path, and reinvent the concept of jewelry.

I like seeing that such innovation, and originality helps to challenge the traditional concept while also transcending it.
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Photo 1 (top right): Sterling Silver, Acrylic, and Paper Roll Clean Your Mind Pin
Photo 2 (bottom left): Sterling Silver and Paper Book Ring

MICHAEL ROANHORSE

The Sante Fe Botanical Garden, located in New Mexico, is a vivid, natural landscape.

The structure houses the Ortiz Mountains Educational Preserve; the Leonora Curtin Wetland Preserve; and lovely flora including blue flax and velvet weed. New Mexico is also home to featured jewelry designer Michael Roanhorse.

PETER SKUBIC

At nearly 500 years old, Austria's Porcia Castle is one of the country's most important historical structures with its blend of Italian and baroque architectural styles. Austria is also the home of featured jewelry designer Peter Skubic.

I will admit that upon viewing Skubic's angular, and boxy stainless steel jewelry pieces they seemed indiscriminate from each other.

The abstract structures resemble partially folded pieces of mirror-like metal accented with randomly placed, protruding metal wires and occasional splashes of color. However, careful thought goes into these seemingly arbitrary forms.

"The process always starts with drawings but after I finish the piece it becomes a continuum," he says. "My mirror pieces have a form but you cannot see the form. I think about the dimensions of my pieces, the positions of the angles, and cutting the stainless steel plates.

Depending on the time of day, these pieces reflect the light and the piece becomes one hundred different pieces. Sometimes you see colors behind the shiny stainless steel plates or just the shiny plate. The effect is you think you see glass, not a mirror."

A goldsmith for more than 30 years, Skubic's design approach, and choice of materials also reflect a pointed intent to challenge ideas of quality in jewelry, and perceptions of jewelry as art.

"I want to find a personal sign of quality in jewelry, not only brilliance and commercial aspects. For example, I like to use color in my pieces, but without the use of big gemstones," he explains.

"I put color on the back of the shiny plates and, of course, the stainless steel plates are not diamonds but for me the plates are more attractive than diamonds.

To me jewelry can be art, but it is always a question of quality, and quality to me is not something definable, it is something you feel."
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Photo 1 (top right): Stainless Steel Mirror Brooch
Photo 2 (bottom left): Stainless Steel Ring with Blue Acrylic

SERGEY JIVETIN

The stately St. Michael's Castle (a/k/a Mikhailovsky Castle) in St. Petersburg, Russia is a study of beautiful architectural contrasts with Gothic, Italian Renaissance, and French Classicism motifs.

Russia is also the birthplace of featured jewelry designer Sergey Jivetin.

BEVERLEY PRICE

When we enter South Africa's Walter Sisulu National Botanic Garden, we are met with the spectacular Witpoortjie Falls. It is a lovely area with over 600 species of flora, and different habitats. South Africa is also the home of featured jewelry designer Beverley Price.

AUD CHARLOTTE HO SOOK SINDING

A considerable number of centuries-old, well-preserved Buddhist temples populate the country of Korea beautifying the country's already spectacular landscapes.

The over 400-year-old Beomeosa Temple is composed of several smaller buildings, which the country declared national treasures.

Korea is also the birthplace of featured jewelry designer the late Aud Charlotte Ho Sook Sinding.

URSULA WOERNER

Even within the ruins of Germany's Heidelberg Castle, you can still get a sense of the structure's majesty and power.

Built a little over six centuries ago, the fortress has been used as a regal residence and a quarry. Germany is also the ancestral home of jewelry designer Ursula Woerner.

ELA BAUER

We walk along the Krakowskie Przedmieoecie Boulevard in Poland observing and exploring the many landmarks like the bronze statue of King Zygmunt; the Holy Cross Church; and the Old Town Market Place.

An aura of times gone by encompasses everything. Poland is also the home of featured jewelry designer Ela Bauer.