YDC 2023: The Finalists!

The time has come – the finalists of the Young Designers Corner Jewelry Competition 2023 have been determined! From numerous entries, the jury has selected six young up-and-coming designers who will be invited to present their work at Gemworld Munich from
October 26 to 29.

There, on Thursday, October 26 at 5:00 p.m. in the forum area in Hall B6, the three winners will also be announced.

In addition to the prizes awarded by the jury, there will also be a public vote via the Instagram account of the Munich Show in the run-up to the fair. Among all participants who have cast their vote by October 23, 3x two free tickets each will be raffled.

Young Designers Corner 2023 Award Ceremony:
Thursday, 26.10.2023 | 5:00 p.m. | Forum in Hall B6

Below you will find the jewelry concepts of this year’s Young Designers Corner finalists:

After all, we are
created for a (social)
symbiosis, so that
we do not “get lost”?

The effects of the pandemic, climate change, war, increasing poverty, refugee movements and immigration, parallel societies, political polarization and the instrumentalization of propaganda are part of the daily debates and human agonies.

Two opposing forces are fighting within us. One pushes toward togetherness, intimacy, openness, coexistence. The other pulls us toward solitude, protection of our existence, autonomy.

The Symbiosis brooch is made entirely by hand from pure 925° silver and bears approximately 100 invisible connections (torch soldering) and 1000 visible wire loop connections. Inspired mainly by architecture, especially the Reggio Emilia train station (Santiago Calatrava), I tried to playfully approach concepts and meanings such as HUB, biological relationships, forms of unity when designing this piece. Desiring to establish a deeper or more personal connection with the wearer, one could say that this piece embodies the art of living together. Or maybe we live together with art!

ART CHANGES.

“The good Lord is not so dear that he gives form to one who has no content.“ - Alfred Hrdlicka

Seven is a significant number.
Seven frames were made.
Each piece springs on its own, with different strength, individually. We humans are all individual. They all touch each other are connected by something greater.

The wearability of the jewelry is a very important issue for me and I always take it into consideration. I have noticed that brooches almost always hang down at a slight angle because the brooching is applied afterwards, to avoid this, my jewelry has the brooching built into the brooch and it hangs completely straight and comes out perfectly. Another advantage is that it can lie straight on a surface so does not wobble and can therefore be presented perfectly.

CAN BE WORN SEPERATE OR TOGETHER

Facet cut: “Don’t give up Charlie Brown”

For me it is important in my work to reconcile the concepts of craftsmanship, value and dynamics. The precise play of the facets I cut should reveal new perspectives inside the stone in the light.

Design Concept:
My artisanal pursuit here is aimed at an innovative cut form of a medium-sized stone that has not been seen before. The shaping of the rough stone created an agile volume dominated by peaks, comparable to a kite gliding in the wind and reflecting the sun’s rays falling on it.

This stone can be found in the jewelry forms ring, earrings and pendant / necklace.

There are few animals as legendary and majestic as the black panther. In particular, its often mysterious appearance in film and television contribute to the magical transfiguration of this extremely rare creature. Especially the appearance of Bagheera (Baghira) in the novel “The Jungle Book” by Rudyard Kipling as the narrator of the story give the black panther a serious and extremely important role. This majesty and elegance motivated me to choose the motif of the panther for the eleventh “Young Designers Corner” competition. This explains at the same time the naming of the piece of jewelry.

The necklace represents a panther, which fits snugly around the neck of the wearer. The shape is very natural and appropriate to the grace of a panther. The shape progression looks very natural and appropriate to the grace of a panther. The neck clasp offers a sophisticated closure system, which is easy to use, but still offers a very high level of security. Due to the balanced weight distribution, the animal always stays in position with the wearer and also offers a high wearing comfort. The piece is constructed from three solid individual parts, front legs, rear legs and the closure system. All parts, except for the handmade closure, were modeled independently in the CAD program. A big challenge here was to find a suitable partner for the casting work.

First, all the individual parts had to be trimmed and prepared for the barrel work. A total of 50 stones were set into the necklace by hand: 48 round, black and white diamonds, as well as 2 drop-shaped diamonds as the eyes of the animal. The next step was to assemble the individual parts. This was the next big challenge, as the massive construction made the material incredibly difficult to solder. Now the piece of jewelry was finished to a high gloss and could be handed over to the electroplating in a further step.
The white color of the silver was to be changed to a matching shade of black to further enhance its presence and appearance. Through a complex chemical process, a layer of ruthenium was added to the jewelry. In a final step, a green jasper ball was drilled into and attached to the panther’s front paw, much like a pearl. Almost playfully, the animal thus tracks the ball around the neck of the wearer. In numbers, the necklace has a weight of about 250 grams of 925 sterling silver. It is set with a total of 51 gemstones: 48 round diamonds of grade Tw/Vs1, two diamond drops of grade Tw/Si1 and a green jasper ball.

The jewelry “Bagheera” captivates with its incomparable and playful design, as well as with its precise craftsmanship. On a long way with numerous successes and also precipitations it was a priceless feeling at the end to be able to hold the finished work in hands.

The line is an essential element of design. It can have many forms: straight, curved, wavy, curved and many more.
A line can have ends or be infinite, like the lines that describe a circle or the number eight. Often it is a line that makes the beginning when an idea is put to paper.

But the line is also used metaphorically in philosophy, literature, the humanities, and poetry to represent facts or to string connections along it. This pin jewelry is adorned with fine engraved lines that flow into and overlap each other on a surface of polished silver. In combination with the metallic sheen, the engraving creates a visually playful three-dimensionality.
The long needle of the brooch continues to trace the line of the contour under the textile and winds around the engraved surface. It does not come back to the surface until shortly after the engraving point, its curved end securing the needle in the textile. To further secure it, the textile is placed over the engraved area with the needle running underneath.

The piece of jewelry becomes a three-dimensional symbiosis of surface, engraving and textile. Due to the high flexibility of wool fibers, finely knitted wool textiles, e.g. cashmere, are particularly suitable for this type of brooch. The size of the engraved area beautifully hides existing embroidered small labels.

This piece of jewelry is part of a collection of earrings and lapel jewelry, which is constantly expanding. The engraving is done in a specially converted CNC engraving unit, where the metal is mechanically processed.

In my masterpiece to the gold and silversmith master I have chosen the myth of Atlantis as the overriding theme, because I am fascinated by the thought of an advanced civilization before our time. Atlantis, all pure fiction or did the legendary island kingdom really exist, a myth or is there a true core hidden in the story, a riddle or secret that hides forgotten knowledge from us? What did the inhabitants of this sunken island know and what was life like on it? What technologies were the Atlantians already familiar with?

However, the myth about Atlantis is not only exciting for this reason. The story of the rapid sinking of the island with all its inhabitants is also particularly tragic. Atlantis has inspired the imagination of many people since ancient times. Numerous artists have dealt with the myth over the course of time. Today, the sinking of Atlantis is one of the most frequently used themes in literature and film. Especially in the genres of fantasy and science fiction the myth about Atlantis is often processed and inspires the audience. According to Plato’s descriptions, Atlantis was not only rich in knowledge and power, but also rich in raw materials such as gold and silver. Ring- and ray-shaped canals crisscrossed the island and were navigated by ships.

My idea was to create a wristwatch made of silver, which through its design combines typical features of the myth of Atlantis from art and film, to revive the idea of a technologically advanced advanced civilization of the past. The dial of this watch is luminous and shows futuristic lines, reminiscent of the radiating arrangement of the city as described by Plato.

A dynamic and form-fitting transition between the bracelet and the watch case evokes the body shape of a ray gliding past the pillars of sunken Atlantis. Uniform curved lines give the viewer the impression of flowing water or waves of the sea, which captivate and carry away.

In my masterpiece I combine traditional goldsmithing and silversmithing methods with modern processing techniques, which stand for the knowledge of this foreign time, which may have been lost and perhaps not invented, but only rediscovered.

Atlantis is a very interesting subject that makes us think about the history of mankind and cannot answer many questions. It is a mystery that cannot be solved, but enchants our imagination. It is a theme that kidnaps the viewer and makes him dream of strange times and ideas.