The record-breaking amber sculpture is exactly 1.532 m long, 0.154 m wide, and 0.367 m high. Approximately 40 kg of selected amber (from over 100 kg!) was used to create it, choosing the perfect yellow and cherry colour shades. Carving the amber replica of what is probably the most famous ship took about 1 month of continuous work – an average of 12-14 hours a day, 7 days a week (the original took 26 months to create – and each is unique in its own way).
Although this will undoubtedly be the most famous (after the original) Titanic, it is not the first amber replica of this ship to be created in Tomasz Ołdziejewski's workshop. He made the first one shortly after the Polish premiere of the film „Titanic”, when he noticed his wife's tearful eyes at the end of the film (as he admitted himself, his own eyes also unexpectedly welled up), and he thought that this ship and the associated film story evoked huge amounts of emotion. „These earlier replicas were smaller, not entirely made of amber, and not as proportionally perfect as this last one. After I made these first replicas, I knew literally everything about this ship – where the benches were and where the railings were that Kate and Leo held onto,” he explains.
In his career spanning over thirty years, he has built more ships – including, among others, the Black Pearl inspired by the film „Pirates of the Caribbean.” And, as he proudly announces, these will certainly not be his last nautical works. A visit to the mine in Santiago, Dominican Republic (immortalised in one of the episodes of the second series of the show „Baltic Gold”) inspired him with the thought of carving a replica of the three ships from Christopher Columbus's first voyage: the Santa Maria, the Pinta, and the Niña. However, they will not be made in Dominican amber, only Baltic (and it's supposed to have a Polish accent) and they will be donated either to the Krzysztof Kolumb Museum in Santo Domingo, or to one of the local amber museums.
His amber Titanic boasts two certificates – one confirming its entry in the Guinness Book of Records, whilst the other, issued by the Laboratory of the International Amber Association, certifies that the work was crafted from 100% amber. But for Tomasz Ołdziejewski, that’s not enough. „Anyone can have one record; I’d like to have more,” he says. And he’s already making plans to break his own record – three times over. „I’d like to carve another amber lighthouse, ideally modelled on the one in Krynica Morska or Kołobrzeg, at least 1.7 metres tall, as well as the Eiffel Tower. I’m also thinking of carving a model of the Vistula Spit canal, ideally from amber mined there,” he explains. All these efforts have a purpose: „I’d like to be remembered.”.
The record-breaking sculpture of the Titanic made of amber – and many other works by Tomasz Ołdziejewski – can be seen at an exhibition in the Gmina Culture Centre in Stegna from July 1st to August 28th, 2020.
