Few jewelers can boast that they are true artists: Georg Hornemann is one of them. The designer has a story worth telling. He was born in 1940 in Dassau, in what was East Germany. Since he was young his aptitude for design emerged, at the famous Bauhaus school, and at 15 he worked as an apprentice with one of Dessau’s leading goldsmiths. Before the final closure of the borders, in 1958 Hornemann managed to go to West Germany, and find work at Weyersberg, one of the leading jewelers in Düsseldorf.
At 27, he received the first international prize as a jewelry designer and started his own business as a goldsmith. His specialty are unique and unusual pieces. In the early 1970s, his designs were inspired by Op Art, but Hornemann also used non-jewelry materials such as ancient coins, Byzantine crosses, Russian icons, and Japanese sword parts. In 1982 he was admitted to the Diamonds International Academy by Sir Anthony Oppenheimer and his jewels have been exhibited in New York, Paris, London, Sydney, Singapore, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Zurich, Düsseldorf and Berlin and have won awards.
Since 1985, his son Alexander Hornemann has also started working with him. From jewelry, the German designer’s design then moved to silver and iron household items, bowls and candlesticks. With the turn of the century, Hornemann also created his so-called ring sculptures, inspired by contemporary architecture, sculpture and art.
Hornemann was also the first goldsmith to design a jewelry collection specifically for the luxury brand Akris summer 2005 prêt-à-porter collection, exhibited in Paris at the Carrousel du Louvre. He works with precious stones and gold, silver, platinum, bronze and iron, but also Corian or acrylic. The motifs of flora and fauna are central, so he simplifies and abstracts the natural forms and emphasizes the ornamental. Another theme is the tension between life and death.
