Freehand / Class Petra

Petra Class

Trained as a silversmith in Germany and having spent several years constructing tableware, my approach to jewelry making is informed foremost by the European tradition of applied art. I have created jewelry that is wearable and also, to a big degree, to the materials traditionally perceived as precious.

Over the years, I find certain themes reoccurring in my work, the rhythmical arrangements of several elements, repetition of similar forms or colors, the unexpected contrasts of differently textured materials.

Initially, my jewelry was very much connected to the large usable objects which I used to make in my silversmithing days. Thus, it consisted mainly of hollow sculptural shapes and contrasted in color only by the choice of either gold or silver. At a later time, the addition of stones opened many doors to a whole universe of texture and color.

I am endlessly fascinated by the wealth of different reds found in nature, by the sea of blues: the opaqueness of lapis, the transparency and subtlety of a lightly lilac-colored sapphire. One can almost paint with these stones.

Within the self-imposed limitation of, for instance, making a gold brooch I feel I can, through my choice of colors and textures, communicate a certain mood , an attitude towards life that in turn will be, I hope , sensed by whoever is looking at the piece...like a improvisational jazz melody, like an abstract landscape.

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