How did you react to the news of winning the Grand Prize in the Amberif Design Award 2011 competition?
I was very surprised when I received a call from Poland informing me about the prize. I was extremely happy, especially since I really wasn’t expecting to be the „selector“ of the jury. It’s not that easy to come up with a good idea that fits the topic and then execute it properly. But this time I was lucky!
This is not your first contact with amber – in 2009 you took part in amber workshops organized in Gdańsk. Was this experience helpful in creating the award-winning project?
Of course, yes. My experiences so far, almost two years ago, turned out to be very helpful. Before that, though, amber had been coming into my workshop and I had already developed a fascination with this stone. However, it was only participating in the workshops in Gdańsk that gave me the opportunity to get closer to it and learn about its processing. And, of course, to better understand this mystery that is amber and everything that happens around it.
What do you mean by the term: mystery?
To me, amber is like a fascinating mystery, much stronger than in the case of other stones. Enshrouded in legends, with numerous myths about its formation and origins dating back even further than ancient times. It is like an enthralling journey into the past, witnessed by all kinds of inclusions – insects, spiders, and even air bubbles – preserved in the stone over 40 million years ago. And this extraordinary lightness, and the fact that it floats in seawater from which it can be fished. And of course the story of the lost Amber Chamber, the location of which remains a mystery to this day.
What was your idea for telling a story using amber?
Since I quite often work with layered materials, using bitumen and asphalt, I came up with the idea of recreating a piece of amber trail – in a literal sense – as a witness to the history of trade, the times of its greatest glory and the role it played for many centuries or even millennia. I used raw and polished amber with bitumen and silver elements that testify to the rich jewelry traditions, mixed the „ingredients” and gave them the shape of a brooch, which, thanks to its texture, resembles the surface of a modern road. Upon closer inspection, we will notice the shape of Poland, and the arrangement of two silver elements – parts of the clasps of the necklaces – is not accidental: it is Warsaw and Gdańsk. I think that many of the stories that amber can tell are contained in this piece, we just have to imagine them.
I hope that after winning this award you won’t rest on your laurels and will continue your adventure with amber…
Of course I will! Adventures are more interesting the more intensely we open ourselves to them. The same goes for the adventure titled „Amber”.