Meaningful Heart Jewelry Concept to perpetuate emotions by Britta schwalm is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2017 A' Design Award in Jewelry Design Competition Category.
IronJewelry· 2017
Meaningful Heart Jewelry Concept to perpetuate emotions
Client: Britta Schwalm
A' Design Award Winner in Jewelry Category
Verified Award Winner
Verify Award Status for #51261The Design
About Meaningful Heart Jewelry Concept to perpetuate emotions
There exist a lot of jewelry carrying memories about family or events. They have become old-fashioned since, but are too invaluable and beloved to be sold. They are often tucked away in the jewelry box. Meaningful Heart Jewelry is usually a pendant to be worn either on a necklace, sometimes as a charm, a brooch or key-holder. It is a new piece of jewelry in a new shape but it still perpetuates all the individual emotions and memories. It is without fail made from the beloved old gold that was trusted to BrittasSchmiede. It is a heart melting concept.
The Recognition
About the A' Design Award
Meaningful Heart Jewelry Concept to perpetuate emotions is an Iron A' Design Award winner, a prestigious recognition granted to good designs that meet the professional and industrial requirements expected from well-designed creations. Iron winners demonstrate great skill, high specialization, expert understanding, and creative capacity of their creators. Meaningful Heart Jewelry Concept to perpetuate emotions is expected to be a highly regarded, admired, and cherished creation that is practical and innovative. This Iron A' Design Award-winning design integrates industry best practices and has competent technical characteristics linked with know-how and talent. Meaningful Heart Jewelry Concept to perpetuate emotions is respected for its thoroughness and is designed to provide quality of life improvements that help make the world a better place.
Interviews
Design Interview
What is the main principle, idea and inspiration behind your design?
First of all: sorry for my humble english.
The idea is to preserve strong and positive emotions. If you own a jewel that reminds you of a beloved person but you can't wear it, the heart of preloved gold-concept brings new life in the beloved jewel and preserves the emotion.
What has been your main focus in designing this work? Especially what did you want to achieve?
Jewels are emotions. Jewels connect people during life and over generations. There was a long tradition to give a jewel from father to son, from mother to daughter. Today many people don't know, that these jewels can change their design - sometimes a lot, sometimes a little - but won't change their meaning. Nobody wants to wear old fashioned jewels and with the heart of preloved gold concept I want to show no one needs to.
What are your future plans for this award winning design?
I set up a homepage and want to show the many different designs, that are possible. Till today there are a lot of heart shaped jewels and I hope the award will bring a lot of publicity, so that there will be a lot more of hearts.
Grand Interview
Your innovative approach to transforming cherished but unworn jewelry into the Meaningful Heart Jewelry Concept has earned recognition at the A' Design Award - could you share the pivotal moment that inspired this sustainable transformation of emotional heirlooms?
The pivotal moment came when a customer approached me with a piece of unworn gold jewelry that held deep sentimental value but was no longer worn due to its outdated style. She wanted to preserve the memories associated with it but also desired a piece she could wear. This inspired me to create the Meaningful Heart Jewelry Concept, where cherished heirlooms are transformed into beautiful, wearable art while preserving their emotional significance.
The Meaningful Heart Jewelry Concept to perpetuate emotions uniquely preserves both material and memories - how does your melting process ensure that these precious family pieces retain their emotional significance while taking on a new aesthetic form?
Our melting process involves carefully analyzing the material to ensure its purity and then melting it down to form a new heart-shaped piece. Throughout this process, we maintain the integrity of the original gold, ensuring that the emotional value remains intact. We do this by intensively consulting with each individual customer about how the new heart should be shaped and what should be retained from the previous piece. The new heart shape not only gives the piece a fresh, contemporary look but also serves as a tangible reminder of the original jewelry's sentimental importance.
What specific technical challenges did you encounter when developing the Meaningful Heart Jewelry Concept to perpetuate emotions, particularly in achieving the delicate balance between maintaining the gold's integrity and creating an artistically appealing heart shape?
One of the main technical challenges was ensuring that the gold maintained its structural integrity during the melting process. Achieving the delicate balance between preserving the gold's texture and forming a visually appealing heart shape required precise temperature control and careful craftsmanship. Additionally, incorporating any existing stones or engravings from the original piece into the new design posed a challenge, but we managed to integrate these elements seamlessly.
Behind the Design
Press Kit
Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.
- Unique Properties
- Meaningful Heart jewelry is usually a pendant to be worn either on a necklace, sometimes as a charm, a brooch or key holder. It is melted from old pieces of jewellery. Pieces with strong memories attached, but not wearable because of shape or constitution. The result of the melting process is a heart shaped pendant, solid gold, with a smooth or rough surface, depending on the customers wishes. It is still full of emotions and memories and it is without fail the e.g. wedding ring of grandma.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- Depending on the amount of material a melted heart measures approx. 5 mm to 5 cm in diameter.
It is above-mentioned to have a rough melted surface. - Tags
- Meaningful, Heart, jewelry, gold, preloved, sustainable, recycling, up cycling, reused, pendant, key ring, charm,
- Production Technology
- The gold has to be analyzed, to make sure it is gold. Thereafter it will be arranged in a heart shaped form on my melting place. I put the fire on it and heat it up all-over till it starts melting. With a little stick the fluid gold can be arranged. Then I cool it down in some water. Then I polish the surface to a smooth or rough finish. If there is a piece of jewellery which should stay untouched, I construct a wire or panel, to get a heart shape, with the precious untouched piece e.g. inside.
- Design Challenge
- The challenge in this project is to recognise the ideas of a person, not used to think about the shape of a jewellery and reach this ideas so that the customer feel Yes, that's it. The second challenge is to create a design which is close resembles a love heart, while avoiding to bee cheesy or appearing too chunky.
- Research
- The pieces consist of preloved gold or silver and of diamonds or precious stones which were part of the jewelry melted for this project. The material of the pendant is 100 percent recycled gold or silver. The environmental savings: No new material has to be mined. All of it is already there and usually at least 20 years old. There is a saving of poisonous chemicals, which are usually required in recycling gold. These chemicals are not needed in my process, as the gold is only re-shaped.
- Inspiration
- First step into this direction was an event called Goldrausch - gold fever. Visitors were invited to bring their old silver or gold items and melt a nugget by themselves. Once a client came and sought advice about what to make out of her preloved gold. She didn't want to sell it, as it had belonged to her grandma, but she could not wear it. I remembered gold fever and asked her to make it to a heart shaped melted nugget. The result was a beautiful little golden heart, which my client loved.
- Project Duration
- First gold fever-event took place in early 2010. After yet another gold fever in November 2014, the idea appeared to take off and I implement the Heart of preloved gold option on my website and in my goldsmith's shop. In February 2016 I was invited to give a demonstration of my Meaningful Heart jewelry live in the TV show Hallo Hessen. In March 2016 I registered the website Herz-aus-Altgol.de
- Operation Flow
- There exist a lot of jewelleries carrying memories. They have become old-fashioned since, but are too special to be sold and are tucked away in the jewellery box. As a Heart of preloved gold the jewelleries can be worn. In a new look, but the material still carrying the memories. It is much more cost efficient than buying something new. The only money to be paid is for my work. And, my benefit: I love this special glance in the eyes when the customers pick up their completed jewelry.
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