5 #ItalianDesigners to watch at Romanian Jewelry Week 2023

La dolce vita or… how to fall in love with some beautiful pieces of jewelry.  I would like to introduce you 5 #ItalianDesigners to watch at Romanian Jewelry Week 2023. 

Below, short interviews with Giorgia Tasca, Angela Gentile, Fabiana Fusco, Jennifer Wells, Roberta Pavone. Scroll down and be amazed! 

#FashionBlogger #FashionTrend #RomanianDesigner #English 

• Romanian Jewelry Week 2023 – 4-8th of October 2023, at Biblioteca Națională a României.
• More than 230 designers, school and collective associations of designers from more than 30 countries (Romania, UK, SUA, Australia, France, Kuwait, Czech Republic, Latvia, Italy, Greece, Mexico, Lithuania, Israel, Ukraine, Belgium).

*** GIORGIA TASCA, Amàlgama Jewels – @amalgama_jewels https://amalgamajewels.com/ – “Jewels are the physical representations of promises, feelings and intentions”

You chose to focus on jewlery because…

I’ve been fascinated by symbols since I was a kid, I remember learning how to read before many of my friends because I was so fascinated by these symbols, these letters that I had to decipher in order to access the many secrets they were guarding.  Historically, jewels were of course an embellishment, but the reason why I love them are the hidden, prohibited or even scary bits. Jewels are the physical representations of promises, feelings and intentions. These amulets are beacons for what we want, hope for and fear, for all the drama that anything relevant is inevitably drenched in.  At times they were also a hidden language for those things that at times women were not allowed to express openly. With this in mind, I choose craft my jewels all singularly and by hand. This brings the certainty of a treasure that, just like our drama, is tailor made and unlike anyone else’s.

What is the message of the collection presented here, at Romanian Jewelry Week 2023?

Everything I create is the result of a deep exploration, of self-analysis, a confession letter of sorts, but in jewelry. The need to express myself through Ambrosia came at the time I was facing some drastic changes I made in my life. I decided to leave all that made me feel safe to search for my more authentic self, at times doubting if I’d even like what I would find.  It was very painful process and today it still aches like an old wound when the weather changes, but as time goes by, that ghost limb feeling is turning into a sensation of lightness and, on good days, even growth. 

Ambrosia was the food of the gods that granted immortality and power to those who ate it. And all the jewels form this collection stem from this feeling of growth after going through difficult changes. Even though this process is a lot less pleasant than swallowing a spoonful of sweet nectar, cutting of old branches leaves space for new life that explodes and evolves in an eternal ever-evolving cycle. 

This message transfers into the jewels in their thriving coral designs and bold organic shapes, in the engraved monitions and mottos. All jewels from this collection evolve following a timeline from smaller to voluminous pieces, from darker to lighter, telling this story of rebirth in chapters.

If you were a piece of jewlery, you would be… (why?) 

At the cost of looking like an astrology geek, I feel I can summarise my inner nature as my sign which is Virgo sun, Sagittarius rising. It’s a balance of opposites, something flamboyant but also essential. Attention worthy but never loud, if that makes sense. This is why unexpected, multifaceted, bold and thoughtful I’d probably pick the chatelaine. The chatelaine was a precious embellished brooch that was hung from the belt. It had several chains on which castle keys, useful instruments from everyday life but also precious, fun and decorative charms were attached. It was popular in from the 16th to the 18th century when clothes didn’t have pockets and they could be completely different according to one’s social status, occupation or what she/he enjoyed. I feel this object perfectly encloses both sides of my nature. 

*** ANGELA GENTILE, Italy – @angelagentiledesign – “I believe in my instinctive need for beauty”

You chose to focus on jewelry because…

It all started when I received as a young girl a gold necklace with a small and delicate filigree heart in central, it was then that the passion for jewelry was born in me. Years later I became a goldsmith and I started working in the field of classic jewelry, I believe in my instinctive need for beauty and because I have always felt the need to create and seek harmony in shapes and things.

What is the message of the collection presented here, at Romanian Jewelry Week?

At the Romanian Jewelry Week I participate with two collections, Rebirth and Energy, both conceived and born in the pandemic period. Although different, they share the strength of an energy that oppressed, restrained, generates movement and rebirth, power and new life.

If you were a piece of jewlery, you would be… (why?) 

I think if I was a jewel, I’d be a pearl earring. Earrings are the ornaments that I wear more naturally and that I prefer; the pearl is a recurring element in my jewelry, a symbol of life, bright but discreet. 

*** FABIANA FUSCO, Italy – www.fuscogioielli.com, @fabiana_fusco_gioiellidartista – “In the night, than, dreams are on the border between the wake and the sleep” 

You chose to focus on jewlery because… 

I started to draw jewels from the last century made by Cartier, Bulgari, at the end of the high school and after, at University, I also have a keen interest in technique, especially in lost wax sculpting in a silver workshop of Rome. There I discover the pleasure to built little figures and sculptures that could be wear and express my feelings and emotions so after the degree in Art History I attended a metalsmith school and then I open my studio.

What is the message of the collection presented here, at Romanian Jewellery Week?

The collection is called “Dreams”. Dreams are an essential part of our life. Whether in daydream or deep in sleep they affect our lives. Some of them come true because you fight for it to come true, we follow our goals hoping that something change in our life. The hope of being able to succeed, the fear that everything failed live together as dreams and nightmares in our way of feelings. Bad dreams are captured by invisible nets that let pass only the good one, freedom’s dreams of hundreds of women that see their rights and their lives betrayed, dreams of people that cross the see on a boat and the colorful dreams of children. In the night, than, dreams are on the border between the wake and the sleep that speaks of bodies connected, shared beats and of whom live love on their skin.

If you were a piece of jewlery, you would be… (why?) 

Probably a necklace, something with rough and polish surfaces that alternate each other playing hide and seek around your neck, suggests hide parts ready to be discover.

*** JENNIFER WELLS, Italy – jennwellsstudio.com,  @jennwellsstudio – “Jewelry is an art form that can be intimate and public in the same moment”

You chose to focus on jewlery because…

I have always been drawn to jewelry and to creating. As a child I remember listening to my grandmother’s stories about the pieces in her jewelry box and also drawing all over myself with markers. I focus on jewelry for a multitude of reasons; it is an art form that can be intimate and public in the same moment and has the potential to carry with it generations of memories into a contemporary  context. Personally, the need to create is one I will never escape. To be able to create and decorate oneself at the same time is a very joyful and playful way to express myself.

What is the message of the collection presented here, at Romanian Jewelry Week?

In this collection, the line is representative of our course in life. Each of us, as we are sewing the assemblage of our life together, are at the same moment creating the line that forms us and our course. Holding us together, pulling us along in this life, and as in life there are moments where the line ends and begins again. You may think on this as a pause, a breath, a moment of change.

If you were a piece of jewlery, you would be… (why?) 

I would be a necklace, because a necklace may be a high collar style or long and draping. If it needs to be concealed, it can be worn under clothing. It is also a piece where balance is considered, but the collective weight of it may be more than most other jewelry pieces.

*** ROBERTA PAVONE, Italy – @robertapavoneorafa – “My collection is an invitation to smile, to think about joyful things”

You chose to focus on jewlery because…

Since I was a child I have always dreamed of being a goldsmith. At the age of thirteen I enrolled in the Art Institute, Metals and Goldsmithing Option. It’s a deep passion that never leaves me.

What is the message of the collection presented here, at Romanian Jewelry Week?

It’s an invitation to smile, to think about joyful things. These jewels are inspired by candy necklaces from when we were kids, birthday parties in unpretentious homes with the colourful straws that would soon become an environmental threat, casts of objects found in a half-open drawer, abstract visions of aunts’ jewelry, memories, and more memories.

If you were a piece of jewlery, you would be… (why?) 

Earrings, handmade and therefore perceived as different only by a keen eye, like my being full of diversity and daily contradictions.

Photography: (c) courtesy of RJW 2023.