Cornelia necklace

Eligius Award 2019 is an exhibition with the finalists of the 5th edition of the prestigious Eligius Jewellery Award. It is granted with 7000€ prize money for Austrian jewellery artists. This prize is named after St. Eligius, saint of the goldsmith guild. This award is intended to highlight the historically important position of the goldsmiths in Salzburg its past through the appreciation of contemporary artists and their art to emphasize it and keep it awake. The prize is awarded for an artistic, innovative work every three years and is Austria’s only award for this art form.

Among 13 finalists, also my work has been nominated for this exhibition. A selection of works will be exhibited in MAK (Austrian Museum of Applied Arts / Contemporary Art) in Vienna.

I was thinking about the beauty of nature and life.

Alginate is a material which is derived from brown algae. As a purely biological material it is safe and environmentally friendly. It is an exceptional skin safe body molding material. Alginate is suitable for making temporary molds, it absorbs water quickly. After the water evaporates, the shape shrinks and dries out. It is very lightweight. This was the moment where I decided to make jewellery of it. I’ve often changed, further carved, colored, or coated the imprint. These pieces include cement, pigments or sand.

What are these objects? They are mild forms, imprints of shells, skeletons of marine organisms, parts of melted sand grains together, or the unknown nature which we cannot see. This jewellery shows how I see the real, or even the unreal. There are not real found shells, or coral skeletons, there are only three-dimensional pictures of it. What could be, seems more real than visible things. The game played by real and not real, takes place in jewellery and wearer’s body.

Cornelia necklace is a noticeable statement piece that is lightweight and comfortable to wear.