What motivates a jeweller with 40 years of professional experience to enter conceptual jewellery competitions? And how is it possible for him to win top prizes right away? What is the secret of his success?
You have been a jeweller for more than 40 years, but only recently decided to try your hand at art jewellery competitions.
All this time I was operating locally, I was sort of locked in with my own clients. I felt fulfilled in this work, especially as I received a lot of appreciation from clients. That is why it took me so long to open up to new challenges.
And with immediate success!
The awards in the competitions in Legnica and Gdansk came as a huge surprise to me. For a long time I had felt the need to test myself in jewellery other than strictly jewellery. In my free time, I looked at artistic, conceptual jewellery on the Internet. I felt more and more strongly that I wanted to be part of this world in which the utilitarian value of jewellery - so important in the jewellery studio - was not the most important thing. As a jeweller, I have always seen artistic jewellery as free - and that is what attracted me most about it. Previously, I was not able to follow these dreams, because I devoted all my time and energy to ensuring that the bespoke jewellery I made met the customer's expectations. More than that: I even demanded of myself that this jewellery was even surprisingly prettier than the client had imagined.
You have set the bar high for yourself.
I don't know how else to do it. It's a way for me to feel that the work I do gives me satisfaction. If sometimes something did not go as expected, I had no problem whatsoever with doing the job completely over again. This is due not only to the great respect I have for my clients, but also to my belief in the unique role of jewellery in people's lives. It documents the most important and beautiful moments in our lives - we give it to loved ones to record a happy moment or as a token of love. As a jeweller, I want to fulfil my customers' expectations to make these moments even more beautiful.
What was it that made you decide to open up into artistic jewellery?
The client motivates you to try even harder - and that is very cool. On the other hand, such commissions are a kind of constraint. When I'm fulfilling someone else's expectations, I can't allow myself complete freedom of thought, I constantly have to remember, for example, the aforementioned usability of the jewellery. Of course, in the case of competition works, there is also a limitation, if only in terms of the subject, but this freedom is definitely greater here, and there is more room for imagination. I wanted to feel this freedom at last.
Which year was it?
I first tried my hand at local competitions, in which I managed to come 1st twice - in 2015 and 2017. I remember that this was a great satisfaction for me. The next challenge was already to participate in the exhibition „In my opinion... Jewellery with a message”. I made a piece for the exhibition, which premiered at Jubinale in 2018. I went there, met the originators of the exhibition and some people from the world of art jewellery and really wanted to be part of that world. And that resulted in being more open to it.
Your first significant success in this world came in 2022. - You were awarded the Grand Prix at the International Goldsmithing Art Competition „Still Human?”.
I entered this competition with little mental strain. I thought I had nothing to lose, so why not. I was even more surprised when I found out that my work had not only qualified for the exhibition, but had also won the top prize. It was really great joy. But it was also a bit of a regret that I was so late in making my dream come true...
Perhaps you were not ready for this before.
I thought so too. Better late than never. This success made me so excited that I decided to take part in the next edition of this „Touch” competition, for which I qualified. In the meantime, I also managed to win the Silver Award in the Amberif Design Award „Amber as a prize” last year. These successes make my determination to commit myself more strongly to creating more free-form pieces.
What does this mean?
This means another level of challenge. I would like to make jewellery without any restrictions - without customer expectations and even without a competition slogan. I would like to spot interesting inspirations myself and realise them in conceptual jewellery. I'm still a little terrified by the thought of how my current working life will change, but at the same time I know that I want to face this challenge. Or rather: I want to fulfil that old dream of mine that I've always had somewhere in the back of my mind, but never had the time to realise.
The next challenge is the Amberif Design Award „Symbol of Hope”. Do you already have an idea?
The idea is only just maturing. There's plenty of time, so I'm letting it go, thinking about the interpretation of the theme. It is very close to traditional jewellery, in which, after all, there are many symbols: of love, marriage or birth. But there is also a danger here - it's easy to fall into cliché, which is something I would like to avoid at all costs. So I am looking for a new perspective from which to view this challenge. This will be my third work submitted to this competition - I once took up the challenge a long time ago, but the work went unnoticed. It only succeeded last year. Interestingly, as a goldsmith, in the past I have more than once criticised artworks in the making of which the maker did not, in my opinion, put enough effort. And now I am making pieces that are defensible only in terms of the idea, while the execution is trivial... And I already know that it's not as simple as I thought... In order to achieve the desired effect, I climbed the proverbial Mont Everest and then descended back to the workshop, where I realised that the first idea was the best one after all. The experience of taking part in the competition made me realise that what may seem trivial to others may not be so to the creator.
Where did your love of jewellery come from?
I brought them up from home. My father was a clockmaker, he restored clocks, silverware and objects made of metal, he also made jewellery. I grew up with the idea that everything can be repaired. And if you can't, you have to make a tool yourself, but you can. When I decided to open a workshop in Nowy Sącz in 1986, we made the tables for the workshop ourselves and my father forged the hammers at a friend's forge. Everything was obvious to me at the time, so for a long time I wasn't even aware that this was something special. It wasn't until recently, when I read posts on Facebook by people who wanted to learn goldsmithing, that it occurred to me that not everyone had acquired this knowledge at home. A big influence on my work - and life too, of course - was meeting tai chi master Howard Choy. I have been practising tai chi for many years, but it was only he who taught me how to combine the various elements of the knowledge I had acquired so far. I myself am an instructor of this martial art - I teach how to exercise, but it is actually also learning how to live differently, how to think differently. Exercising motivates you to be here and now, gives you more clarity of mind and makes it easier to make decisions. Tai chi has also translated into my thinking about jewellery, where I have started to incorporate feng shui elements. And - most importantly - I have relaxed.
What does this mean?
In Europe, if someone fails at something, we say: next time you have to try harder, put in a better effort, etc. What the Chinese hear is: you need to relax more, you failed because you are too tense. And if you are too tense, nothing works. And certainly not as well as he would like.
We already know the key to your success.
That is exactly right. I got it from Master Choy and am happy to pass it on.
