Art7, which used to produce mass-produced amber jewellery, has opted for innovative design - what were the reasons for this change?
Maciej Rozenberg: I protest, Mr Wojtek was already making interesting jewellery 30 years ago - I saw it! It was very bold stuff for the time. Maybe difficult to sell at the time, but interesting in terms of design.
Wojciech Kalandyk: The desire for satisfaction. A new design, a new solution - this pleases and drives you to keep trying. Of course, our jewellery is not easy - you have to find a marketing frame for it, explain why it is different. Although usually a good design and good proportions defend themselves. At some point, I stopped being heavily involved in social activities in the amber community and there was a kind of breakthrough. I looked at jewellery differently, I think I wanted to feel more satisfaction from what I was doing. I started working with designers. Now we work with Mr Maciej and I really enjoy this arrangement - even in marriage, such compatibility doesn't happen (laughs). It is often the case that I am thinking and he is already drawing what I have in my head.
MR: I also owe my appearance in the company to a little earlier cooperation between Mr Wojtek and the designer Tom Kubis, who is highly regarded by me. His jewellery in the company Art7 made me believe that with my ideas I could also realise myself here.
WK: We are very happy that we can make „different” jewellery and that it is liked. And that by doing so we meet interesting people on our way.
Meanwhile, many companies claim that innovative design sells badly. So how is Art7 doing?
WK: But we have exactly the same problem! Mr Maciek and I would like to do „top of the range designer” jewellery, but we need to go a little lower towards commercial reality, i.e. to modify the design in such a way that we are still happy with it, but at the same time to make it a little more commercial.
MR: Selling innovative designs takes time. Art7 also has such unique pieces on offer, which take longer to arrive because the design and manufacturing phases are very time-consuming, so they are also more expensive. However, we know that sooner or later the customer will get to us. The only general question that arises is whether and how long the company can wait for him.
WK: In my opinion, the problem lies in the fact that, as an industry, we still too often feed on stereotypes and think parochially. We show too little creativity, openness to what is new and different.
In the amber industry, nothing happened in the field of design for years, it was only the crisis that made many producers realise that without a designer and a good design, there is no move.
MR: When it comes to commercial jewellery, the level has certainly risen noticeably in recent years. But experimental jewellery with amber is actually not being made in our country.
WK: Amber offers a great deal of opportunity to capture its beauty, but you have to have an idea for it first and foremost, only then the technology and everything else....
Art7 captures this beauty of amber and encapsulates it in patterns that are astonishingly simple, yet very striking.
MR: We like things that are simple - whether in jewellery, in architecture and in all areas where man appropriates space. And they inspire us.
WK: Yes, yes, I would add something else sometimes, but I know Mr Maciek won't do it anyway....
MR: Silence is sound because it makes sound meaningful, yes emptiness allows what is created to exist. We try to strive for this and not spoil our work, with literalism and narrative. We don't want to impose ourselves, we prefer to leave our imagination free and we believe that for this our clients respect us.
Your designs are proof that literally anything can be inspired in jewellery.
MR: In my opinion, it is a question of what fascinates us. Everything we see or experience is within us. What we like the most is deepest. Then we just reproduce it and refer to it. Whether it is a woman's lips, clothing or architecture. The hardest thing to be inspired by is jewellery, because it's a finished piece. For me, it's easiest to go back to memories of years, months or days ago, and look for colours, structures and shapes there.
WK: I have a strong preference for simple solutions. I often look at reality as a small sculptural form, a spatial element. Nowadays, many people use 3D programmes and there they view the product multidimensionally, while we definitely prefer to use that oldest computer in the world, the brain. For us, it is still the one that is most creative.
Art7 is a phenomenon of sorts: neither mass-produced nor artistic jewellery. You are somewhere in the middle.
MR: And what are the criteria for belonging to each of these worlds? Some of the designs in the Designers' Gallery at Ambermart do not, in my opinion, deserve to be called artistic. On the other hand, some of our designs are not strictly commercial - Art7 also creates experimental jewellery that is quietly suitable for the gallery and we have no complexes. Doesn't a company have the right to make original things just because it is a company? After all, it's not the size of the company that counts, it's the creativity and the resulting works.
WK: In what categories should we „measure up” to the designers? Aesthetics? Innovation? We have introduced some really innovative solutions in jewellery, including the liquid, 2,000 pieces of embedded zirconia, the use of amber fractures as the main means of expression and the intrusion into the interior of the stone. We are by no means afraid of the „pink carpet” (the colour of the carpet in the Designers' Gallery at Ambermart - ed.), but neither do we regard it as an unattainable place for us. What matters to us above all is the product.
Indeed, I pigeonholed you... The division between big companies and artists is already a cliché....
MR: I would not make such a distinction. Everyone who faces matter-design faces the same dilemma and is subject to the same laws of evaluation. Any other criteria are only secondary.
WK: I, on the other hand, find it amusing when someone says they are an artist. After all, it is not the words that are supposed to prove it, but the achievements measured by the level of innovation.
MR: Of course, we won't forbid anyone from thinking well of themselves, because we think well of ourselves too, and this motivates us to continue our efforts. After all, we can always resort to confrontation: it is enough if we gather in one place the best works of a selection of leading companies, not only amber companies. Such a confrontation will allow a fair assessment of the situation.
WK: But confrontations are so edifying! You can see where you really are, compare yourself with others. But also to help each other, which is probably the most important thing: to praise a good idea, to suggest a solution... It's not a problem.
The company's 30th anniversary is coming up - are you preparing something spectacular?
MR: I am convinced that if we did a presentation of „Art7”s 30 best designs for the 30th anniversary', that in itself would be spectacular....