I act in my own way, avoiding clichés and established paths - this sentence very aptly characterises Marcin Bogusław. In his own way, or how?
I was looking for a drawer for you, but couldn't find one.
Is that a good thing? Which one?
One that allows you to be pigeonholed, so that when you look at the jewellery you immediately know that it is Martin Boguslaw.
So it's a good thing (laughter).
This is because your jewellery designs are so different from one another.
I am constantly looking for my place. And I hope not to find it for a long time yet - because finding that own drawer could cause me to stop growing. For me, it is the search that is the most important and the most fun. Especially since I really dislike repetition, making the same designs. Even the third time I see the same design, I get impatient and I'm tempted to change something, to improve it, to look for a new solution - so that it won't be the same anymore. And the best thing would be to leave the old design and start doing something completely different. What turns me on the most is technical solutions, I like to come to different technologies on my own, even if it's breaking down an open door. This not only allows me to develop, but I also find features that make my jewellery stand out. For example, I look for good ways of setting stones.
Sticking a stone in is simpler and cheaper....
Of course, glue is an excellent tool (laughter). So much for papermaking and carpentry... But not for jewellery. I would prefer it to be more difficult and to be able to handle any challenge. Of course, I know that this raises the price of the final product, but I still believe that there will be a customer for this more „demanding” jewellery.
Do you manage to live on jewellery alone?
I do not add (laughter). Although I admit that it is not easy in this day and age, when workshop activities alone account for only about 10 per cent of the total process, with the rest falling to marketing and commercial activities. Nowadays, commercial success very often does not go hand in hand with creative ability, but rather with marketing. Unfortunately. Ideally, marketing ideas should be combined with technical knowledge and education. Because only such a combination allows high sales to go hand in hand with quality.
You, however, insist on the workshop.
Because the workshop determines everything. The better it is mastered, the greater the chances of producing a design-interesting object, i.e. a more accurate materialisation of the thought.
Ambitious. Why do you have such a drive for technology?
I have always put something together, even though I had no tools or conditions. I used to straighten paperclips and join the wires thus obtained into larger constructions, welding them together with tin. It was at the turn of primary and secondary school. I was sent to the school in Felińskiego Street (Jan Kiliński School Complex No. 31 in Warsaw, with a crafts profile - ed.) to a general class, where I could learn about various workshop profiles. I was dazzled by the jewellery class - it was there that I realised I could go much further from the paperclip stage. And that was the breakthrough. I concentrated on learning in the jewellery class. I threw away the clips, started to complete tools, to try things at home. At one point, I ended up in Ark Wolski's studio - he hired me at his place to help in the workshop. During the day I worked at his place, and in the evening I realised my projects. Slowly, there were buyers for them - and that was another discovery and incredible motivation for me. I felt I was good enough to apply to study at the Academy of Fine Arts in Lodz and gradually became self-employed. At the same time, I was expanding my studio and learning. And now, before I know it, I am also teaching others: I teach at the POA Nowolipki art centre. I never imagined that passing on my knowledge and observing the progress of my students would give me so much satisfaction.
You have several awards and prizes to your credit, including for jewellery mastery in the Mercurius Gedanensis 2013 competition. You were also invited to exhibit for the third time with the Au+ Group as part of the Legnica Silver Festival.
This is a huge accolade for us. Our two exhibitions to date - Temptation i Time - also had premieres there. This time the theme is Pink Pig In Ink and I think it's really good: it's the turning of everything upside down combined with total freedom of expression. One of the things that fascinated me was the process of shaping an object that had not yet been fully designed, but which already existed in my head - without a blueprint, created just like that, even though its appearance was not yet fully defined. There are four thinking heads (Bartosz Chmielewski, Filip Jackowski and Michał Wysocki - ed.), each thinking differently, so it should be interesting. Our model is Group Six - their vernissages have always been a big event.
You are a designer looking for something. What would you like to find?
I would like to be able to realise all the ideas that are born in my head. I'm tired of still not knowing enough and not knowing how to make enough, even though I've been making jewellery for almost ten years now. I am still searching, trying, struggling with myself to create something good. And, above all, to make something different. Because what fun is it to make something that has already been made before? So I work in my own way, avoiding patterns and established paths. In addition, I also dream of having my own aeroplane in my own barn. A red one, of course.