This is the most prestigious international goldsmithing art competition held in Poland - this year the Legnica SILVER Festival, of which the competition is the most important event, celebrated its 40th anniversary. For me, this is the most important award I can win in Poland. I became its winner after many years of effort and annual attendance since 1994 - I participated either in the competition itself, or in the exhibitions accompanying the festival, or as a member of the Group of Six, which for several years presented the award to the author of the best competition entry in our opinion. The Grand Prix for the \u201eSilver Pillow\u201d bracelet was a great surprise for me - and a beautiful culmination of 25 years since my first participation in the competition. For me, this award also means that I am still keeping up (laughs). For more than a quarter of a century, I've been watching closely how the view of jewellery is changing, and more and more, I already feel like I'm from a different era....<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A bit like this. It has to be said clearly that work experience and the age of 50+ shapes and builds knowledge, but deprives us of quite important qualities, such as youthful mindless courage - sometimes without experience and knowledge, but with an uncompromising pure need for realisation and creation. Such an attitude can often be a creative revelation. I don't think anyone is surprised today that startups - which are often some crazy student ideas - are in such high demand among experienced businessmen and investors. The same goes for young artists. A few years ago, I decided that the Legnica Festival was a big enough undertaking to give me the opportunity to participate in many different projects, so I could safely leave the main SREBRO competition to young artists, who in recent years have made up the vast majority of participants. Hence the idea of the SIX Group Award, which I initiated. I decided that in this way I would always be part of this competition, but without having to wrestle with the themes (laughs). Reality and the need to create have of course verified this approach, so I still sometimes find myself competing against other contestants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The bracelet is a good example here because it reflects my way of thinking about jewellery. I like it when a work stands up for itself and its message is so clear that it doesn't need description. It's just a pity that you can't touch it at the exhibition to better understand what its perversity is about: it was made from 0.2 millimetre sheet metal - visually appearing heavy, but in reality so delicate that you can almost feel the nature of the goose feathers filling the cushion. In this way, I wanted to show how easy it is to misjudge the objects and phenomena around us. And how easy it is to deceive our senses....
This bracelet is also a kind of time bracket - on the one hand, it sums up my quarter-century of presence in Legnica, and on the other, the technological changes of the last 25 years and my experiments. I am always looking for the best solutions, I cannot concentrate on what I have already achieved. Unlike many authors, who have found their creative path and are quietly pursuing it, I have to keep on setting myself new challenges (laughs).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pawel Kaczynski best in SILVER\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n This has always been the nature of my work - I am self-taught, I gained professional experience by observing others and then trying to make something individual, so thoroughly my own. It was particularly important for me to take care of the precision of workmanship, so that no one would accuse me of amateurism or lack of knowledge in goldsmithing. This has stayed with me to this day, and maybe that is why I am still looking for new forms of expression and technological solutions. I laugh at myself that after 30 years of work I could actually afford to make my work easier. But you see, that's karma (laughs). I would even say punishment (laughs). Even in the case of works for thematic art competitions, in which the most important thing is a simple and clear form of expression - not a demonstration of technical prowess - the search for this ideal is for me still inextricably linked with technical experimentation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I use the visual effect of both surfaces, preserving the natural structure of amber, existing in nature for more than 40 million years, and metal, once shaped by a blacksmith and then rusted by nature. Both of these materials have been artistically imprinted by time and this makes them even more fascinating to me individually - as well as when juxtaposed in jewellery. I show them from different perspectives, for example by revealing the interior of the amber and the inner structure of the metal. Initially, I used steel elements in a found form in my work, and then the inherent need to make the work more complex turned on, so I started experimenting with metal, looking for original methods in achieving a natural structure and a controlled effect of natural rust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I very rarely use amber and it usually appears in experimental works that I make for competitions and exhibitions. There's been a lot going on around amber recently, so I've had the opportunity to show my work at prestigious exhibitions including. \u201eBaltic Amber. Tradition and Innovation\u201d <\/a>and \u201eBaltic Amber. Heritage and Modernity\u201d<\/a>. I like amber because it is a graceful stone, beautiful in any form - raw, covered with a bark skin or shining with a polished surface. It is wonderfully open to creative interpretation - a little respect is enough to enrich any object. I value it for its multitude of colour variations and transparency - this makes it suitable for use in a variety of jewellery forms. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I have always been interested in art and have always wanted to create art. Initially I was involved in creating book illustrations and printmaking, among other things. At some point I ended up in a goldsmith's workshop for a few months, then another for a year, where I explored the profession. I liked it so much that in 1991, together with a friend, I opened a studio and decided to focus exclusively on artistically individual projects. Producing commercial jewellery would probably have given me more financial satisfaction, but it would also have limited me to certain forms dictated by trends and market needs. And the niche I have chosen for myself gives me freedom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Positive. I invariably follow the plan I set out at the beginning of my career. This is a significant reason for satisfaction. I hope that I am still in the development phase (laughs). The most important thing, however, is that I manage to combine my work as a goldsmith and designer with my inner need for artistic expression. Dealing with artistic jewellery - like any other field of art - is not easy, especially as it is often treated more lightly than painting or sculpture, and sometimes not even seen in terms of art at all. I divide my jewellery into two groups. The first is collections made for galleries - which retain an individual character but are produced in larger numbers. The second are works that are usually made in a single piece, which I treat very personally - I even call them my children, because their creation is accompanied by truly deep emotions. But it is these works and the realisation of these types of projects that give meaning to my work.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" His jewellery is the result of many years of experimenting with goldsmithing techniques, searching for new possibilities of using metal, but also striving for an ideal form - one that expresses thought in the simplest way. The 30th anniversary of his artistic work does not change anything in his approach - he invariably follows the plan he set out at the beginning of his career.\u00a0<\/p>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":18018,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"slim_seo":{"title":"Mam jeszcze wiele do zrobienia \u2013 rozmowa z Paw\u0142em Kaczy\u0144skim - Amber Portal","description":"His jewellery is the result of many years of experimenting with goldsmithing techniques, searching for new possibilities of using metal, but also striving for the ideal form"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[118],"tags":[],"sekcja":[245],"class_list":["post-18033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wywiady","sekcja-ludzie-opinie"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amber.com.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amber.com.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amber.com.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amber.com.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amber.com.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amber.com.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18033\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amber.com.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amber.com.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amber.com.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amber.com.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18033"},{"taxonomy":"sekcja","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amber.com.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sekcja?post=18033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Fortunately!<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Lately, you have also been experimenting with rusty moulds, combining them with amber.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
What's so fascinating about jewellery that you've taught yourself and still want to surprise?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
What does the balance of these 30 years look like?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n