I am convinced that jewelry should match the body and not vice versa, but I continually wonder if the opposite could also be true.

Reinventing jewelry – filling it with other values and other charms and, at the same time, continuing to worry about if it’s still wearable – is my strength as well as my weakness, and the temptation of going further is really strong…

My jewelry in gold, silver, but also in unconventional materials, is designed through a constant osmosis between formal and stylistic research, technological and metallurgical knowledge that can be made into unique pieces or items in a collection.

In my workshop I use diverse techniques, some of which are really ancient like: granulation, keum-boo, mokume-gane and reticulation. Following the discipline of such techniques, however, does not prevent me from also pursuing a passion for technical innovation and creative experimentation.

Through the years I have developed some techniques of my own (or secret alchemy!) using, in some cases combinations of different metals, or various surface treatments, involving chemical and physical reactions or different ways of working with the materials I use.

I prefer working the metal directly, to design unique pieces rather than objects that can be mass-produced, but sometimes I also work in wax or use other materials if I need to keep down costs in planning larger collections of items.

I design jewels in gold, silver, palladium, platinum, bronze, iron and plastic or recycled materials (often combining them with each other); I prefer to work the surfaces because this is what marks the difference between my products from mass-produced ones. I love simple shapes and smaller volumes, but sometimes I like to work oversized too! Sometimes I’m minimalist, sometimes I like to add decorations and colours to my jewels. The way I treat metals allows me to make them less recognizable through original and coloured oxidations of the different metal alloys that I create in my workshop.

I think jewels, or in general “objects”, should interact with each other such that their significance and meaning is clarified and renewed through proximity and context  (... they are not only a status symbol!). Jewels should show the sign of the hand and the sign of the brain, they are both important to give back a soul to the objects and bring us back our shared humanity…

Signs that can happily educate us to a more sustainable consumption.

 

Federico Vianello Master Jeweller in Florence since 1982