12h in Hong Kong & Obellery Jewellery

This year I flew to Hong Kong but didn’t get to spend a lot of time in town. To be honest, I think I spent more or less 12 hours in town, just enough to do a quick visit to my favorite places and to catch up with the Obellery Jewellery team at the PMQ building.

If you missed the studio visit I did in 2014, go check them out here. They have a very cool studio and gallery, they do some amazing contemporary jewelry, they support local designers as well and teach jewelry classes. And they did pretty much everything around the studio as well (the mirrors, the benches, the jewelry… you get the point). And they said yes to my studio visit when I was just starting my blog, so I’m eternally thankful!

Since this time I didn’t planed to stay in Hong Kong, this was a surprise visit. Lucky me, Hugo and Belinda were there on a Sunday afternoon. Kody was on vacation and I got to meet the new member of their team, Wing Chan who does these amazing necklaces with old Hong Kong mail boxes. And I had only my phone with me, so these are all iPhone photos

Both Bel and Hugo were doing well and I learned that they are currently the finalists of Lane Crawford’s PLATFORM initiative, that helps to nurture and grow emerging talent. Basically they’re looking for emerging young entrepreneurs, brands and designers to pitch their product or their work for promotion in Lane Crawford stores across Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, Chengdu and online. Obellery is currently a finalist and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that they are selected to sell at the Lane Crawford stores (go Obellery team!)

I also asked Hugo about that ring he was doing last time I visited (approximately one year ago) and we all laughed cause it’s not finished yet. And the truth is, I don’t think it will ever be. He tells me it has evolved into other shapes and he’s coming up with new pieces based on geometric forms and angles. And bear in mind, all of this is fabricated.

As for Bel, she was working on some cool opal earrings and I got to see some of her new brooches and work. I also spotted her cool protection glasses, that looked pretty much like the sexy librarian style. She wouldn’t put them on for me (she knew I would post them on the blog), so there’s just this shot of the glasses. To be honest, I think I’m gonna buy a pair for me as well.

It was fun to catch up with the Obellery team and I promised that next time I would not rush and do a proper recap of their studio.

And because I know Hugo hates to take photos I asked for one, with the whole (available) team. So sad that had to be so quick, but it’s a promise, I’ll be back next year. Thanks Obellery team!

Studio Visits in Los Angeles

Not updating the journal part of the site, doesn’t mean that I haven’t been busy. In fact, in the past month I completed 8 studio visits in 3 different cities. My first stop was long due: Los Angeles!

And of course that I didn’t have enough time to do everything I wanted, but still I managed to see some very cool studios, designers and jewelry. Yes, and we all know that the light in Los Angeles is perfect, so every studio was a pleasure to shoot!

In the following weeks/months I’ll take you on a tour of 5 different studios and designers. A hands up to Tyson Morgan for being the 2nd male jewelry designer featured on the blog!

Here’s the dirt on the designers I visited, go check them out and fall in love with their jewelry before I show you the behind the scenes of their creation process

Studio de Lucca: http://www.studiodelucca.com

Corinne Simon Jewelry: http://reveriebycorinne.com

Rosedale Jewelry: http://www.rosedalejewelry.com

T Morgan Made: http://tmorganmade.com

Claudia Endler Designs: https://www.claudiaendler.com

Studio space: to share or not to share?

On the plane back, working on a new post for SpaceUnseen, I started counting the number of studio visits I’ve made. One year and 3 months since the beginning of this blog and I’ve visited 25 jewelry studios in different cities around the world. I feel grateful and always surprised when designers answer yes to my request. (How weird must it be to get an email from someone asking to come snoop around your studio space?) Still, I’ve been having a blast and I’ve had the chance to meet extremely talented and interesting people that have a very special gift.

And the more studios I visit the more I realize that everybody is different. Studios are big and small, clean and messy, in one corner of the house or just a full space completely renovated by the designer. All spaces are unique, charming and special. Why?

I think the jewelry designer makes the space. It’s their tastes, their organization and inspiration that make the studio. The way they work also makes the space (which is reflected in the tools they have). And who they work with: some work alone, some share their space with other designers and some have their own big operation with a team working with them. And all of these differences have proved extremely interesting.

On one hand, designers who work alone seem to have a more conceptual, contemporary approach to design ( I would include the design duos in here). Designers who share their space with other designers (same field or not) like their individuality but love the fact that they can talk business, technique and cheer each other up. And designers who have teams, usually have them because they have considerable volume production, and the whole team usually feels like a big family.

I know there are pros and cons for each side, but I would love to hear your side of the story.

So what do you think or what have your experience been?

From top to bottom, from right to left:

Ana Sales and Mafalda Maya (M + M jewellery) in Lisbon, Beth Gilmour in London, Clarice Price Thomas in London, Claudia Endler in LA, Corinne Simon in Santa Monica, Dede Marconato in Hong Kong, Daphna Simon in NYC, Janis Kerman in Montreal, Malin Ohlsson in Hong Kong, Martha Keith in Charlottesville, Michele Mercaldo in Boston, Noemi Klein in London, Michelle Oh and Rachel Boston in London, Nomera in Hong Kong, the Obellery team in Hong Kong(Hugo, Bel and Kody), the OrriFinn team in Reykjavik (Helga and Orri), Sebastiao Lobo in Lisbon, Sophie Breitmeyer in London, Sophie Hughes in Boston, the Rebecca Overmann team in San Francisco, Katherine (Rosedale Jewelry) in Los Angeles, Khobe (studio DeLucca) in Long Beach and Tyson (T Morgan made) in Los Angeles.

Happy New Year!

I can only wish that 2015 is at least as good as 2014 was for Spaceunseen. I started this blog in February last year, a dream come true and one of my 2014 new year resolutions. I thought I would have fun doing it and that it would be interesting for other people as well.

Oh my, was I proved right! I didn’t expect to have such a positive reaction as I had from everybody. And that is why I want to thank a lot of people. First I want to thank the designers that I contacted and that said yes to my visits. They did not know me (most of them) and were so kind to open their studio doors and let me shoot their jewelry spaces and lives. Secondly I would like to thank everybody that started following the blog, the social media accounts and that leave lovely comments on the blog posts and in the facebook+instagram+twitter accounts. And I want to send a special thank you to Martha Keith, who was the first featured designer on the blog and that accepted to be the Guinea pig for my project!

I also have some objectives for this blog in 2015 (and by writing them down here, I make myself accountable at least for me). I feel that if I’m doing a blog post about a studio visit I should do it right. If the jewelry designers that I visited lost some of their working time by talking to me and letting me photograph their studios, I should at least make up to them and write a honest, truthful account of their jewelry studios lives. All of this to say that writing a blog post takes time and that this is not a blog where I’m “regramming” or “reposting” photos from other people and tagging them along. All of the photos of the studio visits are taken by me and all of the photos of the “5 minutes” feature belong to the featured designers and are used with their previous agreement. So as in jewelry, if you want something done right, it takes time, so bear with me while I try to catch up.

I have at least 8 designers that I visited last year and that I haven’t posted the visits yet. And I’m dying to do so, because they were so much fun, and very different. I’m a jeweler as well and sometimes my business gets in the way of posting as frequently as I would like to. Plus I have a bunch of new places to travel this year and I look forward to visit more and more studios and meet and share with you the very talented people that I meet.

So very soon all of those designers that I visited in London, Lisbon and Hong Kong that have not been featured will be soon. And I’ll also make a quick visit to Martha Keith that moved her studio and update you on news from the previous designers. And will reach out to many more designers, so if you’d like to be featured, send me submissions and I’ll follow through as soon as I can!

I thought I would have fun, but I had no idea of how much fun it is!

To 2015 and all the new things coming to this blog!

Thank you for following!

London Calling

I just spent a couple of days in London and had a blast visiting a lot of jewelry studios. And I wish so many things, that I don’t even know where to start.

I wish I had more time to visit more studios because it seems that everything is happening in London right now. The jewelry design scene is outrageously alive and kicking, with amazing, very talented jewelry designers that are creating very innovative designs.

I also wish I could stay the whole day at their studios instead of a couple of hours so that I could see them work.

I wish I had run away with their jewelry, because all of what I saw was absolutely gorgeous.

I wish I had been in London a week earlier so that I could have visited the Goldsmiths Fair which would have been heaven.

And finally I wish I can come back really soon because there is so much more talent to see that I really want to go back.

But above all, I want to thank the amazing jewelers that I had a chance to visit, get to know and fall in love with their creation and jewelry process. Their studio visits will come up on the blog in the following months and I can hardly wait to share them with you.

Lisbon: a brand new world of designers

Finding young, talented designers in an “old” world of traditional jewelry is a breath of fresh air. My recent visit to Lisbon just confirmed this old adage. In an old world of tradition there are some very bright designers changing the jewelry design scene with a new enthusiasm and good vibes.

They are all very young, with an inspiring and contagious talent. They’re trying hard to make a living out of their passion for jewelry and having success along the way. They all have their studios in the old parts of town like Baixa and Calçada de Santo André, once neglected neighborhoods, now booming with tourism and making a well deserved comeback. These designers have very interesting stories, beautiful spaces and funny, vibrant jewelry to show.

Very much looking forward to show you this brand new world, in the meantime enjoy a short snapshot of the trip!

Hong Kong: a Jewelry Metropolis

If you’re thinking traditional jewelry, carved with diamonds, precious gemstones and jade then this is not the Hong Kong jewelry that I’m gonna show you. I’ve recently been to this city and had the fortune to visit 4 jewelry designers that are changing the jewelry scene in the city with their contemporary designs. Their studios and designs are fun, modern and captivating, while they manage to create everything themselves in their spaces. I was really impressed with them because they manage to pursue their passion in one of the most expensive cities in the world, where space in scarce and extremely expensive. So yes, made in China but not on a factory.

Stay tuned for the studio visits as I will phase them out over the next weeks.

Visiting Quebec, Canada

I was really lucky to have the chance to travel to Quebec in Canada. Even tough I only did one studio visit, I did a very special one. I was very fortunate to do a studio visit in Montreal to the Canadian jeweler Janis Kerman, the designer behind Janis Kerman Design and co-founder of Bande des Quatres a boutique jewelry line. So many cool things…you have to check the studio visit post!

Stay tuned for the behind the scenes and the full studio visit coming in the following weeks.

Behind the scenes at Martha Keith studio visit

Martha Keith is the designer behind Martha Keith Personal Adornment in Metal. She is going to be the first official studio visit on the site and the blog post on the visit is coming up next week.

Here’s a sneak peek of what went by behind behind the scenes of my visit.

Martha won 1st place of the MJSA Vision AwardDesign Competition with a gorgeous necklace

As part of the project doing “a ring a day” Martha has a tray with all sorts of rings made of different materials.

Behind the scenes at Daphna Simon Jewelry

I visited Daphna Simon’s studio in NYC and got a chance to see where the beautifully carved pieces of Daphna Simon Jewelry are made. Unfortunately it was a rainy day and the sun didn’t come out, but we had Daphna’s untamed jewels and her cute dog Lila to brighten up the day.

Here’s a sneak peek of the behind the scenes of Daphna Simon Jewelry studio visit.

Daphna at the bench working on some rings and an impressive leopard cuff carved in wax.

Who can resist them? Lila never leaves Daphna’s side while she’s working at the studio.

Studio visits in Berlin and Vienna

From left to right, clockwise: Jens Sierra Lingemann, Lilly and Elli from BergnerSchmidt, Katarina Schmidt, Milly Nobis, Ruth Temur and Katie Gruber

I’m so happy that this year I was able to make it to Berlin. I was supposed to have visited last year and actually made some appointments to visit studios but a last minute emergency made me cancel my visit and postpone this trip.

Maybe it’s a good thing that I didn’t go last year, because this time I got to visit some awesome studios and see some wonderful, beautiful jewelry. I got to see a very high end jewelry designer, a contemporary jewelry designer gallery, some amazing concrete jewelry and a very fashionable and cool jewelry designer. All of this in Berlin in 48h!

Then I headed off to Vienna, the imperial capital to visit two amazing new jewelry designers. Fortunately I found out while booking the visits that they share the same gallery and studio space: Atelier Lindengasse. Their studio is beautiful and their jewelry is of the utter craftsmanship. Plus we had fun taking some photos of the two of them.

Can’t wait to show you all of the studios and jewelry and to share the amazing new designers that I got lucky to visit. In the meantime you can get to know them by visiting their websites (links below).

Stay tuned cause in the next few weeks I’m gonna start sharing their studio spaces and beware: you might want to move to Europe and open your studio space there. You’ve been warned.

Jens Sierra Lingemann (Berlin): http://www.sierralingemann.com

Ruth Temur (Berlin): http://www.temur-schmuck.de

BergnerSchmidt(Berlin): http://bergnerschmidt.com

Mies Nobis (Berlin): http://www.miesnobis.com

Katarina Schmidt (Vienna): http://www.katharinaschmid.at

Katie G Jewellery (Vienna): http://www.katiegruber.com