Interviews with Ana Piazza

Before taking my first jewellery design course in 2004, I worked in an investment bank in the international area. While taking the course, I decided I had to understand deeply about gemstones because I have always had a passion for them. This passion has to do with my father, who is a geologist, and I grew up listening to him talking about minerals.

Pursuing this idea, I took gemological courses in Brazil and in 2007 started the Graduate Gemologist (GG) course with the Gemological Institute of America (GIA-USA), which I finished in 2009.

Worked in the gemstone department at Sauer, a Brazilian leading jewellery company, which helped me fine-tune the technical aspect of assessing gemstones in terms of cut, clarity and color.

However, besides this gemological expertise, I always imagine a jewellery piece when I see a gemstone I like.

After moving to Sao Paulo, I decided in 2010 to focus in the jewellery segment by taking courses on design, silversmithing and creative development in design. Along with that, I started working issuing Identification Reports on special gemstones for jewellers. Later, I became a gemology teacher at the Brazilian Institute for Gemstones and Metals, function I still have.

In the end of 2016, I decided to launch my brand, Ana Piazza.

The reason I became a designer was the desire to create jewellery pieces with natural gemstones that conveyed poetry through the stories that inspired them. Because of my gemology background, I have come across a lot of natural gemstones. For all of them, I always imagined a jewellery piece to show their beauty. Creation moves me and makes me feel alive.

When I design jewellery for my brand, there are some important aspects I do not leave out of my projects. First, I choose a theme inspired by an experience or objetct or feeling. The designs have to reflect the theme. Second, I do not copy from other designers because I love to create. I like to challenge myself.

I do rely on technology through the design process. After drawing my sketches, I use a CAD software to draw a 3D model which will be used to print a wax model to create a mold for casting in gold. Before creating the mold, if the wax model needs any technical correction, I fix the 3D drawing and go over the whole process again.

The whole design process is exciting and provokes unique feelings. It makes me feel empowered, fearless and my mind becomes free of all judgmentes and preset beliefs. When the jewellery piece is ready, I feel complete.

The most valuable non-design skills designers, artists, architects should have is to understand that we do not know everything and we need to be in constant learning. Learning not only in the educational sense, but also learning about yourself. I value the way I open myself to learn new things and see the old ones from a different perspective. Experiences, feelings, objects, people are all teachers to me. I carry a big influence of my dearest father with me, not just because of his expertise in the geology area, but also because he has taught to be ethical. I have a strong loving bond with him.

For the future, I want to keep designing jewellery pieces with natural gemstones that convey a story flavoured with poetry. There are some characteristics that I will keep in my designs: movement, asymmetry, volume and interchangeable parts. I am already creating my new collection called Nest, inspired by the feeling of being embraced and feeling secure. I have a dream project of designing a big metal sculpture with natural gemstones.

Be genuine and authentic in your creations by not copying other designers. Design with your mind free of judgments. You accomplish this authenticity when you filter everything that you see and experience through the story of your life. What you create and design needs to have a purpose.

My suggestion is to find your own and unique style. You have to feed and provoke your mind with new experiences, feelings, objects. Then, process and deconstruct everything. By doing this, you will be able to find your own style. We are all unique.

I manage my brand doing tasks such as: interact with clients, create content for social media, manage financial aspects, take hand drawing and CAD jewellery design classes, teach gemology courses. When I work on a new collection once a year, which takes six months from choosing the theme until the products are ready, I reserve 4 hours a day for anything related to it. Something that makes me happy during the day is when I walk to my classes paying attention to everything that might feed my mind.

I feed my imagination with designs trends, however I do not follow them. There are some characteristics that when I create a collection or a custom piece of jewellery, I make sure there is at least one represented in my designs: movement, asymmetry, volume and interchangeable parts. My jewellery also carries a story. This story comes from the inspiration which I get by feeding my creativity with experiences, exhibitions, buildings, art, dance, music and by observing nature, people and feelings. This allows me to have my own personal design style.

A good design to me is when the client perceives value in it. Either by fulfilling a need or desire or by causing enchantment. Another aspect that needs to be considered is how innovative the design is. Also, it has to be clear what the design wants to communicate or accomplish. A design has to enchant me to call my attention

I have the feeling of being complete, to be whole. Then I know that my design is ready and I move on to a new challenge.

My biggest and favourite design work is the Gabo ring because it has almost all the characteristics which I value the most in a jewellery piece. The ring conveys a story, it has movement, volume and offers interaction. It was inspired by the wish that people experience again the playful side of life. The magic cube, also known as Rubik Cube, was chosen to represent this wish because of the memories of my son playing with it.

There were some challenges I had to overcome. First of them was to design modules that would not bend over the ring band. Second, the colored gemstones had to be set very close to each other, with minimal metal appearance between them, in order to resemble a magic cube. Third, the modules had to rotate easily so the user would not have to put any strength. Because of these challenges, I had to make various 3D wax and silver models for testing before casting the final ring in gold.

Zaha Hadid is my favourite designer. I would love to talk to her in my dreams.

I live nowadays in Sao Paulo, Brazil, however, I was born in Para, in the northern region of Brazil, close to the Amazon basin, and grew up in Rio de Janeiro. Cities very different with its own positive and negative aspects, however similar by exhaling joy. Brazil has abundant nature, sunny places, vibrant colors, joyful people. On the other hand, we have many social problems. My culture definitely influences my design projects. My lifestyle also helps me being creative because I like to travel, to meet knew people, to learn new things, to be out in nature. All this feeds my imagination.

I design only for my brand and my philosophy is to create authentic jewellery pieces. The challenge, besides working alone, is to be innovative. The best way to help my imagination is to feed my mind with new experiences.

So far, I contribute to society by helping financially some institutions. However soon, I will be doing volunteer work at an NGO. Where I live, there is no humanitarian project related to jewellery. I think it is really nice when artists, designers and architects take the opportunity to get involved with humanitarian projects.

Attending the A´Design Award challenged me to present a project with excellence, well structured and innovative. It is the first design award that I participate. Now that I know how everything works, I want to participate in future editions and other design competitions. I do believe this highly regarded award will change for better the way people perceive my jewellery design work. I feel honoured to be the Designer of the Day.

I was inspired by the wish that people experience again the playful side of life. We lose this side when we grow up because of the responsibilities that come with adulthood. The magic cube was chosen to represent this wish because of the memories of my son playing with it. He would be so absorbed in the cube movements that nothing could disturb him. He enjoyed playing and having fun. And I do believe that we, as adults, should find time to do the same. Therefore, the Gabo ring is intended to encourage users to find this moment of inner peace by playing with it or simply observing its movements and shape.

My main focus was to design a ring that had movement and offered to the user the experience to interact and play with it.

The idea is to promote this award winning design in my social media and maybe hire a PR work here in Brazil. It is a special opportunity to promote my brand. This award carries an incredible reputation because of the institution behind it is seen as serious and impartial.

The project started in November, 2018 in Sao Paulo, Brazil. I started by drawing some sketches, then after some wax and silver models, and many adjustments, the final model was ready by the middle of August, 2019.

I designed this jewellery piece, a ring, pursuing an inspiration.

I outsource the production of my design here in Brazil. However, my brand is the only selling point of the ring.

I wanted to design a jewellery piece that could offer the possibility to the user to play with it, bringing joy and inner peace. The magic cube, also known as Rubik Cube, was the element chosen because of the memories of my son playing with it.

There were neither designs nor designers that influenced the creative process of the Gabo ring. It was solely based on my inspiration of producing a ring that could offer to the user the possibility of playing with it.

My target customers are women that like to know the story behind the jewellry they wear. These women value design, are modern and selfconfident. They choose jewellery they admire, not because it is in fashion.

My target customers are women that like to know the story behind the jewellry they wear. These women value design, are modern and selfconfident. They choose jewellery they admire, not because it is in fashion.

The name Gabo is the nickname of my son Gabriel. The reason for the name is because of the memories I have of my son play with his magic cube, also known as Rubik Cube. The cube element was chosen to represent my inspiration of wishing people experience again the playful side of life.

I used pencil and colored pencils to draw my sketches. A wax model was printed from the digital 3D model, based on the sketches, that I drew with a CAD software. A mold was then created for casting a silver model. After many prototypes, the ring was casted in gold and polished.

The most unique aspect of my design is the interaction the ring offers to the user through the movement of the modules. This allows the person to play with it and have fun.

I designed the Gabo ring by myself and the idea was also mine.

Without being able to draw the digital 3D model with a CAD software and create prototypes, I would not have been able to fix all the technical flaws before production. This saved me time and financial resources.

My design is not influenced by data or analytical research. Instead, my research was done watching children playing in playgrounds and my son playing with his magic cube. This gave me the insight of creating a jewellery piece that could allow the person to play with it.

The challenges were to design modules that would not bend over the ring band and to set the colored gemstones very close to each other, with minimal metal appearance between them, in order to resemble a magic cube. Also, the modules had to rotate easily so the user would not have to put any strength. Because of these challenges, I had to make various 3D wax and silver models for testing before casting the final ring in gold.

The idea of offering a jewellery piece that allowed the user to play with it was very exciting to me. I thought I needed to share this to the world.

The whole designing process, from beginning to end, was very compelling to me. It made me open my mind to different concepts of design, want to pursue other sources of inspiration and want to challenge myself even more.

Everything was covered. However, I would like to leave a message. Follow your dreams and believe in yourself, they do come true.

Before taking my first jewellery design course in 2004, I worked in an investment bank in the international area. While taking the course, I decided I had to understand deeply about gemstones because I have always had a passion for them. This passion has to do with my father, who is a geologist, and I grew up listening to him talking about minerals.

Pursuing this idea, I took gemology courses in Brazil and in 2007 started the Graduate Gemologist (GG) course with the Gemological Institute of America (GIA-USA), which I finished in 2009.

Worked in the gemstone department at Sauer, a Brazilian leading jewellery company, which helped me fine-tune the technical aspect of assessing gemstones in terms of cut, clarity and color.

However, besides this gemmological expertise, I always imagine a jewellery piece when I see a gemstone I like.

After moving to Sao Paulo, I decided in 2010 to focus in the jewellery segment by taking courses on design, silversmithing and creative development in design. Along with that, I started working issuing Identification Reports on special gemstones for jewellers. Later, I became a gemmology teacher at the Brazilian Institute for Gemstones and Metals, function I still have.

By the end of 2016, I decided to launch my jewellery brand, Ana Piazza.

Creation moves me and makes me feel alive. The reason I became a designer was the desire to create jewellery pieces with natural gemstones that conveyed poetry through the stories that inspired them.

I chose to be a jewellery designer.

Since I have a passion for natural gemstones, I enjoy designing jewellery.

Be genuine and authentic in your creations. Design with your mind free of judgments.

In my opinion, a good designer fulfils the needs and desires of the client. A great designer goes beyond, enchants and surprises the client with a creative product.

What makes a good design a really good design is the capacity of causing customer enchantment.

Each person values different things, however a product with design has value for itself. The client perceives as worth paying a higher price and this perception is shared by society.

If I had the time, I would design home decoration products with natural gemstones just for my brand.

My dream product is to design a big sculpture with natural gemstones.

I do not think there is a secret recipe of success in design, only a recipe. The recipe is to free your mind of all judgements you have and be open to feed your creativity with experiences, exhibitions, buildings, art, dance, music and by observing nature, people and feelings.

Oscar Niemeyer and Zaha Hadid are legends to me.

My favourite designs are Contemporary Art Museum in Niteroi, Brazil by Oscar Niemeyer and Heydar Aliyev Centre in Baku, Azerbaijan by Zaha Hadid. Both projects are breathtaking, provocative and organic. They challenge gravity and their constructions depend heavily on mathematical calculations.

Heydar Aliyev Centre in Baku, Azerbaijan. The design is breathtaking, organic, sensual and its construction depends heavily on mathematical calculations.

To improve as designers it is necessary to be in a continuous learning process and always be open to feed your creativity with experiences, exhibitions, buildings, art, dance, music and to observe nature, people and feelings. All these listed points help your creativity to flow.

Before being a designer, I worked in an investment bank in the international area.

Design for me is to deliver a creative product that a person needs or desires. However, you can do more. You can enchant the client.

All my teachers helped me reach the way I design today.

Feeding constantly my creativity helped me improve my design.

The main obstacle I faced was to free my mind of judgements in order to be open to feed my creativity.

Designers should present their work by telling all the stories used as inspiration to design the product. People connect with stories.

I am already creating my new collection called Nest, inspired by the feeling of being secure and embraced.

My goal is to have a jewellery piece I design displayed at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

People should expect my designs to touch their hearts and stimulate their imagination through the stories that my jewellery pieces convey.

When the product designed improves the way people live and do things.

I am currently working in my new collection called Nest. I am especially excited about it because the inspiration comes from the feelings of being embraced and secure.

The design project that gave me the most satisfaction is the Gabo ring because it has almost all the characteristics that I value the most in a jewellery piece. The ring conveys a story, it has movement, volume and offers interaction. It was inspired by the wish that people experience again the playful side of life.

I would like that the design industry educated people on the importance of design, showing them that design might change and improve the way they live and do things.

The design field is getting more important day after day because of its relation to creativity. In a world where Artificial Intelligence (AI), technology based on machine-learning algorithms, is growing very fast, being creative makes the difference. Designing a creative product can change and improve the way society does things and live.

It depends on the complexity of the jewellery I intend to create. Usually, it takes six months for a new collection to be ready, beginning by choosing the theme until all the jewellery pieces are finished. If it is a custom jewellery piece, the whole process would take 45 days.

Since I design jewellery, I start by choosing a theme. Out of the theme, I pick the elements I am going to work with and represent them in my designs of the jewellery pieces.

My life motto as a designer is to be authentic by not copying other designers. You accomplish this authenticity when you filter everything that you see and experience through the story of your life. What you create and design has to mean something to you. This makes a product different and special.

I think design sets the trends.

Technology is very important when I design jewellery. The reason is that after drawing my sketches, I design the 3D model using a CAD software to be able to check on any flaws of connection among all the parts or the design itself. After fixing all the problems, this 3D model is used to print a 3D wax model. The 3D wax model is then casted in gold. Most of my jewellery pieces go through these steps. However, there are some that are hand made from beginning to end.

I use Rhinogold, a Rhinoceros plug-in for jewellery. I use the software in my Rhinogold classes with my teacher.

I think all three of them feed the imagination and creativity of the designer interfering in the outcome.

I would like if people asked two questions: what is the story behind my design and what inspired me to create it.

When I see a great design, I want to understand what inspired the designer, what is the story behind it. A great design also feeds my creativity.

I do believe in co-design. However, I work by myself and design just for my brand.

There is a special teacher that was very important to me. She helped me unlock my creativity, free my mind of any preset beliefs and judgements and see everything, things and feelings, as input to provoke my mind to create.

Da cosa nasce cosa – Bruno Munari and Criatividade e Processos Criativos – Fayga Ostrower.

I developed my skills as a designer taking courses in different areas such as hand drawing, creativity, Rhinogold 3D modelling and gemmology.

Zaha Hadid.

This is my first award of many to come.

My favourites are: color is blue, food is a Brazilian dish made with shrimp, yucca, coconut milk, and palm tree oil, season Spring, thing is a ring I designed called Vido with a central gemstone with an exclusive cut, Brazilian brand Gloria Coelho.

I do not have any funny thing I have experienced as a designer.

What makes my day great as a designer is when what I imagine creating is possible to produce. I motivate myself by being grateful and feeding my mind with new and different things, experiences and feelings. This way I can deconstruct what is inside my mind and try to create innovative designs.

I have always loved to create and enjoyed doing manual art work when I was a little child. However, I ended up working in the financial area, which I also enjoyed. Later in my life, I decided to relive my childhood abilities and invest my time and effort in the jewellery design business. It feels like I am living a dream.

I think technology will be so advanced and innovative that humans will be able to wear small powerful wings to fly short distance anywhere. Laser technology will be used to set up the lanes and traffic lights in the sky. All the glaciers will be melted, many places will be covered by water and people will have to live in suspended houses in the air. Humans will be able to be in many places at the same time as holograms. They will be able to live in any planet and visit any galaxy. Design will also play a very important role in the future.

I want people to know that I design jewellery with natural gemstones that conveys poetry through the stories that inspire them. Stories based on experiences, feelings and so many things I have ever seen. I love what I do and this positive and vibrant energy goes into any jewellery piece I design.

Before taking my first jewellery design course in 2004, I worked in an investment bank in the international area. While taking the course, I decided I had to understand deeply about gemstones because I have always had a passion for them. This passion has to do with my father, who is a geologist, and I grew up listening to him talking about minerals.

Pursuing this idea, I took gemological courses in Brazil and in 2007 started the Graduate Gemologist (GG) course with the Gemological Institute of America (GIA-USA), which I finished in 2009.

Worked in the gemstone department at Sauer, a Brazilian leading jewellery company, which helped me fine-tune the technical aspect of assessing gemstones in terms of cut, clarity and color.

However, besides this gemological expertise, I always imagine a jewellery piece when I see a gemstone I like.

After moving to Sao Paulo, I decided in 2010 to focus in the jewellery segment by taking courses on design, silversmithing and creative development in design. Along with that, I started working issuing Identification Reports on special gemstones for jewellers. Later, I became a gemology teacher at the Brazilian Institute for Gemstones and Metals, function I still have.

By the end of 2016, I decided to launch my brand, Ana Piazza, with the purpose of creating jewellery pieces with natural gemstones that convey poetry through the stories that inspire them.

Creation moves me, makes me dream and feel alive.

My company started out of a wish to create jewellery pieces that would convey poetry through the stories that inspire them, always carrying a natural gemstone. All the jewellery has at least one natural gemstone. The first collection Horizon was launched by the end of 2016. Two other collections, Concretism and Magic Cube, followed the first one.

Design for me is to deliver a creative product that a person needs or desires. However, you can do more than this, you can enchant the client.

I like to design jewellery pieces that convey a story flavoured with poetry, that the user interacts with it; that have movement, volume, asymmetry, interchangeable parts, that it can be used in different ways.

My favourite design is the Gabo ring because it has almost all the characteristics which I value the most in a jewellery piece. The ring conveys a story, it has movement, volume and offers interaction. Inspired by the wish that people experience again the playful side of life, the magic cube, also known as Rubik Cube, was chosen to represent this wish because of the memories of my son playing with it.

I design only for my company, and the first piece was a pair of earrings for the Horizon collection. This collection was inspired in the place I was born, the state of Para, close to the Amazon basin. I chose some elements as inspiration such as the canoes in the rivers, the sun and trees.

Natural gemstones and gold.

When my mind is in peace and I feel grateful.

I focus more in asymmetry, volume and movement when designing jewellery pieces. All of them have to carry the story that inspired them.

I feel happy, empowered, fearless and my mind becomes free of all judgements and preset beliefs.

I feel complete and my heart full of joy.

A design is sucessful when the client perceives value in it. For jewellery, the designed piece has to match and fulfil the desire of my client.

When judging a design as good or bad, I first consider innovation and what that design wants to communicate or accomplish.

The designer must be respectful to the environment and to society. When I say respectful to society there are some points that need to be covered, such as: do not copy the creation of someone else; pay a fair price to the whole supply chain (input materials and services); be honest by disclosuring all the relevant information needed for the client to decide to buy or not from you.

Respectful to the environment means that you should work with people and companies that respect nature by: recycling, recovering soils or/and landscapes, using renewable energy, reusing water.

The design field is getting more important day after day because of its relation to creativity. In a world where Artificial Intelligence (AI), technology based on machine-learning algorithms, is growing very fast, being creative is what makes the difference.

I have not participated in an exhibition yet.

I find inspiration for my designs in everything I have ever seen, all the places I have ever visited and all the experiences I have ever gone through. And I feed my creativity by travelling, going to exhibitions, watching an orchestra playing, observing feelings, analysing architecture, watching children playing, visiting museums, watching a play in the theatre, walking in the streets and watching how people behave, observing nature and so on. Everything I pay attention to is available as inspirational input for creation.

My design style is very clean with emphasis on asymmetry, volume and movement. This style has to do with my journey in life. My life has been movement because of so many places I have lived in and asymmetric with different and contrasting professional roles I have embraced. The volume itself has to do with not enjoying flat things. When a jewellery piece has volume, it seems to me it has life.

My heritage definitely influences my design. I live nowadays in Sao Paulo, Brazil, however I was born in Para, in the northern region of Brazil, close to the Amazon basin, and grew up in Rio de Janeiro. Cities very different with its own positive and negative aspects, however similar by exhaling joy. The cons I see, during designing, as a result of living in my country, are the social and economic problems we face. And the pros are: the vibrant colors, the sunny places, the joyful people, the abundant nature.

I do not work with companies. I design for my own brand.

This question does not apply to my brand, however I think the companies should allow the designers to create multiple and different design options according to the product briefing and not restrict the creation process. A good designer is the one that delivers a creative product that the clients of the company need or desire.

My design process starts by defining a theme based on an inspiration, either something I have experienced or seen or different feelings I have or observe. Then I choose which elements of this theme I am going to elaborate and represent in my designs.

I have only one design item I cherish, a chair.

I manage my brand (interact with clients, create content for social media, manage financial aspects, take hand drawing jewellery design classes), teach gemology courses, exercise, meditate and take care of my home and family. When I work on a new collection once a year, which takes six months from choosing the theme until the products are ready, I reserve 4 hours a day for anything related to it.

Be authentic. Do not copy from other designers. Follow your heart and create with your mind free of judgments.

The positive aspect of being a designer is to create products which satisfy the need or desire of a client. The negative aspect is that sometimes the designer faces restrictions and cannot create freely.

My golden rule in design is to be authentic by not copying other designers.

A designer should be free from any preset beliefs that might interfere in the creative process. It is also important that the designer understands the needs and desires of the client.

During designing, I use: pencils and colored pencils to draw my sketches, 3D modelling - CAD software, paper modelling, wax modelling. As inspiration in my toolbox, I have architecture magazines and books of buildings and bridges.

When I design a jewellery, I set a date the piece has to be ready. Establishing this time limit helps me determining how many hours a day I need to work on the project. The project becomes priority and the other tasks will be done along the hours left during the day or postponed.

It depends on the complexity of the jewellery I intend to create. Usually, it takes six months for a new collection to be ready, beginning by choosing the theme until the jewellery is ready. If it is a custom jewellery piece, the whole process would take 45 days.

What are my sources of inspiration.

I have not worked for another company. I design for my brand.

My clients are women who value the story behind the product, who love art, design, travelling. She is modern and prefers timeless pieces.

I love designing jewellery because of my passion for natural gemstones.

I want my brand to be known in Sao Paulo as the best in offering jewellery with natural gemstones that conveys poetry through the stories that inspire them. I also want to participate in other international awards.

The creative process is done by myself. If I need a gemstone special cut for the design, I outsource the work of a cutter. The production of the jewellery is also outsourced, being done by either a goldsmith or a company. Everything is made in Brazil.

I am already creating my new collection called Nest, inspired by the feeling of being embraced and feeling secure.

contato@anapiazza.com, @anapiazzajoias, www.anapiazza.com

Everything was covered, it is a thorough interview.