In late January, the Red October Factory in Moscow, which turned into a fashionable area for various kinds of contemporary creativity, hosted a multimedia exhibition of works by the participants of the Other Jewelers Project - sketches made by artists and jewelers. Other Jewelers, which is a federal-level social and cultural project run by the CITYCELEBRITY portal in team with the Private Property Jewelry Boutique, presented collections produced by more than 50 jewelers from 17 cities of Russia.
The purpose of their aspirations was described as trying to "search for a new Faberge.” The authors of this project say that in Russia there are no "truly famous" jewelers and so far there are no prerequisites for their emergence - despite the abundance of gold and diamonds in the country. To remedy this situation, Other Jewelers aims at discovering new names, making the creative and business audience get acquainted with artworks of talented jewelers looking for new forms and implementing off-beat ideas. The organizers started to establish ties between the creative and business components of the jewelry process, between artists and jewelry chains and stores. Konstantin Garanin, CITYCELEBRITY’s curator, delivering an open lecture on "New Promotion Tools” said:
"Large-scale retail is dominant in the jewelry industry of this country and it is not too worried about variety of products or finding new authors or creating ingenuous collections – here we do not mean the well-known international brands, whose goods are not affordable to most people. Recently, when we were running a creative workshop in St. Petersburg, a girl came to us to show highly fascinating jewelry pieces and her exhibition was of great interest. Then I stumbled at another interesting author at the Live Journal Portal, where she was promoting and selling her works. And it became clear that all is square in Russia with talents in this area, but they have meager opportunities to reach the major market."
The exhibition at Red October summarizes certain results of this project, and the best parties should receive support and be invited to co-operation. And even if a new Faberge will not be found overnight, the efforts to help young jewelers find their place by spreading information about them are worthy of respect. The first phase of Other Jewelers was held during the last fall. There were presentations and self-presentations of “other jewelers” and they were given an opportunity to take part in jewelry shows. These events received mass media coverage. They also had a chance to discuss the problems of Russia’s jewelry industry at a "round table" joined by project participants, representatives of jewelry companies and experts speaking on whether it was possible to resist jewelry imports or how to promote unorthodox works of young local jewelers switching them from semi-legal online sales and sales on art-markets to specialized stores trading in certified products.
CITYCELEBRITY accepted applications for the contest in three nominations: "Concepts", "Demo Samples" and "Certified Products". Authors' works were reviewed and the best of them were selected by the jury, which included Dmitry Dronov (head of the Jewelry Art Department at the High School of Folk Arts and Member of the Artists Union of Russia); Slava Tulupov (designer, sculptor and goldsmith), Victor Musica (lecturer at the International School of Design and Russian State University for the Humanities), Violetta Litvinova (fashion designer and collector) and others.
The contest was followed up by an art exhibition launched at the Kontora Restaurant where jeweler designer Alexey Gabilo demonstrated his video-art pieces, while fashion designer Lena Karin showed her new collection and Elena Aseeva, a participant of the Xoroshop Project, offered an interactive master class during which anyone could create a jewelry piece under her guidance and carry it away.
The best works of the project were presented to the contest. The winners were:
In the "Certified Products" nomination the first place was won by Edward Nikitin (Moscow) with a series of works that included the “Snail” ring, “Lake of Dreams” brooch, “Treasures of Agra” necklace and “Unicorn Games” brooches. The first place was also given to Alexander Chekotin (Moscow) for a series of works called “Chekotin Jewelry.”
The second place was taken by artists Vera Tiestto and Anastasia Kocherova and jewelers Alexander Tiestto and Vyacheslav Burnyashev of jewelry design studio Dhara (Moscow) for their ring called “La Tour d'Eiffel.” The third place was given to Alexander Shatokhin (Chelyabinsk) for a series of works called “The Embodiment of Ideas.”
In the "Demo Samples" nomination the first place was won by Natalya Isanova (Moscow) for a series of works “Feel Free to Transform.” The second place was given to Alexander Shatokhin (Chelyabinsk) for a series of works (the “Daisy” and “Autumn Leaf” jewelry sets, “Violet” ring, “Flower Lawn” earrings, “Autumn” jewelry set and “Crescent” pendent). Alexander Stolyarov (Moscow) was in the third place with a series of works "The Art is inside us!"
In the "Concepts" nomination the first place was awarded to Diana Varyukhina (Verkhnyaya Pyshma) for the collection of works “Au clair de Lune.” Dmitry Kalmykov (St. Petersburg) was second with a series of works called “Concept Jewelry Design” (collections "Coral," "Insects," "Nature" and "Architecture"). Julia Travchanski (Moscow) took the third place with a series of works called "Why be normal when you can be yourself..." (collections "Turn on, Tune in and Drop out," "Attributes of Lord Shiva" and "Magicians").
A special diploma, Editors' Choice, was awarded to Elena Aseev (Хoroshop).
This modern and essentially democratic project is going on, opening new names and attracting talented authors starting to make off-beat jewelry pieces and advancing creative ideas.
Alexander and Vera Tiestto, designers of the “Dhara” Jewelry Studio, who won the second place in the "Certified Products" nomination, told Rough&Polished about their participation in the jewelry project and business:
"Dhara" (meaning “flow” in Sanskrit) is the name of our jewelry studio. It refers to the flow of creative energy from which we draw our inspiration. We are a young group of designers and jewelers, who have teamed up to do our favorite things. We have two designers and two jewelers and we have been working for about three years. This is the first project in which we participate.
How did it happen that you turned into goldsmiths?
Alexander Tiestto: In my youth I studied artistic forging as a blacksmith. Then I was trained as a designer and later worked in this specialty. My brother, Vyacheslav, a geologist by training, has been engaged in jewelry business for 15 years. At some point, he made us all interested in this kind of work.
Vera Tiestto: I graduated from the International School of Design and was trained as a designer architect. My love of stones brought me into this occupation. I have always been interested in stones and their cutting, so I started sketching and it so happened that I got married to a jeweler. I have often heard that jewelry stores are selling trite things, and I agree with this opinion. Since childhood, I loved jewelry and stones. I used to spend hours looking through the album depicting the treasures of the Russian Diamond Fund. First, Sasha and I came up with ornaments and charms for myself, but later friends and acquaintances began to ask to devise and make something for them. So our hobby started to unfold and develop into a full-fledged labor of love.
How much true is the slogan "In search of a new Faberge” with regard to this project?
V.T.: As for the “new Faberge” wording we do not quite agree with it and talked about this with the organizers of the project. Faberge was in the first place a good businessman: he hired quite a number of good artists and talented goldsmiths. Carl Faberge was a philanthropist. He invested money in art, in those who created art.
A.T.: Of course, Faberge is a well-known brand, but in Europe you will be cited some more names, like Rene Lalique, Cartier, Boucheron and a dozen or even a hundred of other names. And we have only Faberge. In my opinion, this brand has actually enslaved our art. But it is not the end of the story and there are new names and many will be coming. If we develop the cultural level of people so that they can understand and appreciate art, then there will be new names.
What jewelers may serve as models of modern and good taste for you?
V.T.: We admire the creative work of Wallace Chan. We are also fond of classics, like Rene Lalique. And in Russia now we have jewelers from whom there is much to learn: these are Dashi Namdakov and Ilgiz Fazulzyanov.
A.T.: I do not agree with those who say that in Russia there are no good jewelers. But we have few opportunities to make them emerge more frequently. For example, Namdakov now opens a boutique in London, not here in Russia - apparently there is more demand there. We barely know each other: some people are exhibited in Moscow and others in St. Petersburg. And many people, especially from other cities, have no place to exhibit at all. They have no information support. The Union of Artists ventured to exhibit some designer jewelry works, but the last time I heard about such shows was quite a long time ago and they were never covered by mass media. These exhibitions are deprived of mass media support.
Is this project a good occasion to make people get to know you?
V.T.: When in Sokolniki (Moscow) the organizers summarized the first results of the contest, Dima Abramov and Konstantin Garanin said that they called a number of magazines asking them to come and tell us what should we do to have something published about this event, but such top magazines as the Vogue or Elle said, "Russian jewelers? Who are they? We do not know and do not want to know about them." The "glossies" have powerful advertisers from Western brands. And they promote them and are interested in that they prevail.
V.T.: And they absolutely do not need any competition from the Russian part. But in the Cosmo they told us: you should at least make some declaration about yourself, send something in and tell what you are.
What is needed to create one’s own brand? What conditions are necessary in order to gain recognition and develop your art?
V.T.: At least the desire to develop.
A.T.: We need a team. We have a lot of jewelers working alone, but staying unconnected is difficult. What we need is team spirit. Any artist, by definition, is an egoist, but it is very important to sacrifice one’s egoism for the common cause. Money in modern Russia mean a lot and an artist may easily turn into a business organizer, who will start opening stores and probably succeed. But as an artist this person will die.
How did you happen to get into the Other Jewelers Project?
V.T.: I received a proposal from CITYCELEBRITY, they have been searching for jewelers in social networks and invited many, but only those who were interested to show their worth turned into project participants. We were also asked to exhibit our works.
A.T.: I think that right now the jewelry art in Russia needs exactly such an approach. And we are grateful to the organizers of the project that there is at least some opportunity to express ourselves: to see others and be seen. For the artist is very important to be free-thinking. It looks like we are reading off images from something which is still amorphous. This point is very interesting for us – it looks like the "guess the melody" game having heard only one musical note. But the goal of this game is to create something beautiful that will make us happy. The ideas offered by young artists and designers, who are putting the conceptuality and high artistic taste in the first place, may influence tastes if assisted by sponsors and mass media introducing and transforming cultural values. For our team creating jewelry is a way of self-development, a way to create beauty and an opportunity to embody the enigmatic in a jewelry piece, to create works which will live their own lives, turning into artifacts. They will contain those principles according to which we would like to change people and change ourselves.
V.T.: We understand that we are still at the start of the path lying ahead. We're open to everything new, we like to travel. For a designer it is important to be a very good observer. Four years ago I was at a workshop in Moscow run by Italian designers. I still remember one phrase very well: a good designer's head should be able to turn around 360 degrees.
Do you use diamonds in your works?
V.T.: My soul belongs to colored gems more, but of course we use diamonds. Customers often want them. I think that diamonds do not dictate some particularly intricate ideas for design. My vision is that this stone is associated with minimalist and balanced forms - unless, of course, we deal with large-size stones. But in our work, it probably serves as a supplement to design, while colored stones often set the concept of a jewelry piece. So they require quite another approach. People look for individuality in jewelry items. When we have an opportunity to work with unique stones and their faceting, it is an extremely powerful source of inspiration. But, of course, diamond is a very special stone – it is absolute. It embodies the beauty of chatoyancy, quality, hardness and clarity.
Galina Semyonova, Rough&Polished
