Five new designers of the GemGeneve Vivarium

Young people, still not very well known, with a marked creative sense: this is the identikit of the designers present in the Vivarium area of GemGèneve, a space that is being renewed for the edition of the event scheduled at the Palaexpo in Geneva (11-14 May). Also this Vivarium edition has been entrusted to Vivienne Becker, one of the best experts in the world of jewellery, who has identified five emerging designers, four of which are making their debut. The jewels proposed by the participants were very different from each other, which we will discuss in more detail in other articles.

Natasha Wightman presents her first NVW collection at the Designer Vivarium at GemGenève. She is a British artist-jeweler, she uses jewels to tell the stories that most fascinate her: stories of the unexpected, British fauna (in particular the crow), nature, folklore. Leen Heyne is another participant in the Vivarium: he is a Dutch goldsmith and jeweler who offers conceptual jewels. Graduated from the Academy of Goldsmith Arts in Schoonhaven, Leen creates the jewels in his atelier in Tilburg, north of Eindhoven, in the province of Brabant. At GemGenève, Leen is presenting a series of new creations, centered around her experimental work with steel and exhibited for the first time. Designer-jeweler Lia Lam launched her brand just over a year ago, with four collections: Beam, Lagom, Unity and Passepartout, each based on a concept, a story, an emotional experience, synthesized in a pure form and powerful. The style is graphic and architectural, influenced by the Bauhaus movement, brutalism and modernism.

The fourth designer of the Vivarium is Oushaba, a brand launched earlier this year by three art-loving and collector friends, including Gillian Carr, general manager. The designers describe their brand as a house of sustainable art and design that breathes new life into long-abandoned materials, and their jewelry as wearable art that showcases the skills and techniques of master craftsmanship. Their principle of sustainability and circularity is encapsulated in their first innovative collection, Connection Salvaged. On the other hand, the Russian designer Elena Okutova returns to GemGèneve, who founded her own brand together with her mother Irina, in 2009. The jewels are often inspired by the Russian traditions of art and craftsmanship and in the use of enamels and colored gems, but also in tales and in Russian fairy tales. In this way he is inspired by the Russian tradition of oral storytelling, often related to the forces of nature and handed down from generation to generation.