Mária Nepšinská
The Tatranska Gallery in Poprad traditionally presents contemporary jewel creations in September. This year two young creators Slovak Bety K. Majerníková and German Stefy Klemp presented their creations together. Inspirations, their creative intentions and visions of these talented jewellery makers are presented in the following interview.
K. Majerníková (1978) studied at the University of Fine Arts in Bratislava, atelier S+M+L-XL with Professor Karol Weisslechner at the Faculty of Utilitarian Arts.In her latest works she explores mainly the forms and shapes that people like to decorate themselves with these days. The series Small Personal Gadgets is inspired by the multinational design of utilitarian electronics. The author tries to humanize and individualize those items resembling mass production by creating a non-functioning solitaire. She uses many types of plastics as a material. Her newest objects from the series Very Personal are more talismans than gadgets. She tries to express and show the strong personal relationship between a person and non-alive object having a soul based on a life experience. These are not personal data stored on a chip of a mobile phone but personal data hidden somewhere in our depth and depicted through a specific jewel. Stefy Klemp (1979) is a graduate of Art School in Iddar Obersteine. This school in Germany is not known only for the quality of its schooling but also for its connection with the traditional craft of polishing stones. Apart from classical craft techniques, she emphasizes the modern design of a jewel. Stefy Klemp participated for one semester as a student of the Atelier of Metal and Jewel at the University of Fine Arts in Bratislava. With her diploma work “Erika”, she made herself visible on the European jewel scene and therefore won one of the prizes awarded annually to selected diploma works across the world by the well-known Dutch jewellery gallery Galerie Marzee. Currently, she is continuing her work on the Erika collection. She talks to the fictitious Erika about the jewels and then creates the real jewels. She experiments with non-traditional materials and forms. Her love for nature is well felt in the materials she likes: wood, fleece, ceramics, wool, and also working with metals and stones. The approach and connecting materials as well as their selection and colour combinations reflect the author’s sensitivity. Despite the modern and experimental shapes of.