Sofie Lunøe

Jeweller

Why did you become a jeweller? 

I trained as a jeweller by a mastery from 1999 to 2003. Afterwards, I took a one-year Jeweller education in Madrid. (A jeweller sets gemstones in the jewellery) Mastery is basically pure craft education, where design and shaping you can retrain and, like me, throw yourself into it and experience it.I became interested in the subject as a 14-year-old when I was in an internship with the one who later taught me. I'm pleased about that today. That was probably a bit of a coincidence, but fortunately, life is like that too. I love every aspect of the jewellery work, from the design to the craft, to see the customer receive the jewellery.

Where does the idea of jewellery as a sculpture come from? 

My master, Claus Bjerring Andersen was/is not a traditional jeweller, but also a silversmith (someone who makes corpus - large items such as vases and dishes) and had also worked with sculptures before. This was reflected in the jewellery, which was often quite voluminous. I have taken this with me: I am trying to work with the jewellery as small portable sculptures. It is fascinating to think of jewellery in shape as an ornament. And to keep in mind how the jewellery behaves when someone wears it: Does the necklace capture the light and reflect it? Does the bracelet have an excellent movement around the wrist? Is the earring beautiful also seen from the side and from behind?

How is the synergy reflected in crafts such as the goldsmith profession with art, architecture and design? 

For me, it is the primary source of inspiration. The design spans many disciplines. Many are inspired by nature. I often find my inspiration in art, architecture and design. And it can certainly go the other way too. It is exciting to work with scale and see what happens when I take an element from, e.g., an edifice and scale it down to jewellery size. Or I can work on transforming a structure from a two-dimensional surface to a three-dimensional shape.

What fascinates you right now and why?

Currently, I work quite a lot with pearls, a fascinating natural product. I use primarily round and symmetrical beads. My jewellery is usually graphic and geometric, and then it just fits better than the very baroque (irregular) pearls. But I love those pearls are no longer just round, white and put in a row. In recent years, a lot has happened in that field in the jewellery world. I also think there is an exciting challenge here: to take a very traditional product and give it a twist or interpret it in entirely new directions. This is what I want with all my jewellery: Work from a traditional craft and known product types and then come up with my own suggestions on how it can look and be renewed.

From the workshop of Sofie Lunøe