reflections

The field of fashion jewellery freed jewellery as an object from its restrictions. Jewellery is no longer depending on any restrictions, such as precious materials. Nowadays it can be from a variation of materials, as glass, wood or even plastic. Even imitations are used without shame. The value is given by the symbolic character and the meaning it carries inside.

My project questions the perception of value. The covering in plastic ask the question what is more valuable the plastic which covers the stone, or the stone inside which is covered by the plastic. It questions our abuse of a material, a material made of fossil oil, that gets rarer every day.

It creates the value of the material in your mind, because the plastic bag is hiding what is inside. It can be a diamond, a rock crystal, a zirconia or glass.

And it questions the value of a diamond, whose value is created by its reflections, which I am hiding with the plastic bag.

The project was created for the "Love Rocks" collection within the Astonish jewellery collective.

A jeweler’s work is usually viewed as a solitary work. However, if we pay attention, it draws larger circles: gemstones and precious metals come from diverse places, thus connecting us with the world. This is why our project for this year is called LOVE ROCKS.

The origin of this project started 3 years ago in 2019, as a part of Julia Obermaier’s graduation for her master’s thesis. One part of it was “The 6th C – Care”, in it she created a series of pins and 50% of the sales went to the social organisation Botswana Labour Migrants Association — BoLAMA.

BoLAMA is a non-profit organisation that advocates for former diamond miners and their families, e.g., by giving them access to social security benefits. It started good but when the pandemic hit it affected them seriously. So now, as everything is re-opening again, we want to become bigger, louder and raise our voices for LOVE ROCKS. Let’s raise awareness and support those who are suffering for our benefits.

50% of all our sales from the LOVE ROCKS collection goes to BoLAMA.