Contemporary Polish designers create jewellery which is pretty, but neither popular nor typical. They involve unusual materials – non-staining coal, light concrete and scraps. They experiment with new technologies. And, most importantly – they always allude to something.
Hochglance (Silesian: high gloss) coal jewellery is a series of unique rings, pendants, earrings, brooches and cufflinks. It hits the spot with not only Polish mining and Silesian heritage aficionados, but also with users who like their knick-knacks to reshape themselves as they wear them. Coal is a ‘living’, fragile jewellery material which can be reworked using strong blows. What’s more, its creators, Kaja Nosal, Bogna Polańska and Roma Skuza who founded the girls’ workshop bro.Kat, assure the coal pieces that they use are extracted from a block dating back a staggering 300 million years. In 2013, Hochglance jewellery received a Must Have prize.
Up until recently, new technologies interacted with just two senses – hearing and vision. Jakub Koźniewski, Piotr Barszczewski and Krzysztof Goliński of the panGenerator artistic group decided to add touch to the catalogue. They designed the Tacticlu bracelet to allow ‘touch’ to be sent over long distances. The device consists of two parts: a sensor and a component based on ‘artificial muscle’ technology which reproduces the tactile impressions transmitted by another person. The Tactilu is connected via a mobile phone. The bracelet is in the prototype phase.
It was Anna Orska who introduced up-cycling to Polish jewellery design. She specialises in putting scavenged, worthless bits and pieces into creative use. Her jewellery is created using all sorts: figurines, bullets, climbing ropes, car parts, fossilised snake spines, shark teeth, 3D-printed parts, and more. Orska has saving rubbish down to a fine art, but she also creates ideologically-involved projects, like Pills, a commentary on pill-popping. Her acclaimed Apis collection also has higher ideas in mind: it calls attention to the declining population of Apis mellifera, namely honeybees.
Magdalena Ziółkowska, a young designer, uses her brand Porcja (editor’s translation: Portion) to breathe new life into Polish household names, like the Społem co-operative, the traditional Włocławek faïence, and the sleek Rosenthal. They don’t just adorn our tables anymore – they’ve found their way into Ziółkowska’s earrings, brooches, rings and necklaces, all created from refined pieces of old well-known porcelain.
Struktu concrete jewellery is tailor-made for nonconformists and urban chic enthusiasts who go after simple, unique solutions. Sylwia Kochaniec of the Stage & Design studio and Marek Sułek, a sculptor, have created a series of hand-made earrings, bracelets, pendants and cufflinks. Apparently, in forms this small, concrete can be bearably light. Struktu received a Must Have prize in 2013.