Interview With Jan Matthesius

How do you want the wearer to feel in your jewelry?
The way I see it, the wearer has to “grow” into my jewelry. In the beginning the piece might look complex or have too much presence for the wearer, but slowly over time the piece becomes very familiar to the person
What inspires your work?
Is it something like the visual arts such as music for instance? Or could it be architecture, or textiles? Or maybe something as divergent politics, the environment or maybe even history? Do any of these subjects impact your work?
My Inspiration comes from materials certainly, and techniques-yes. But I must say I’ve also been inspired by the travel I’ve done in former days. When working together with my life and creative partner Pauline Barendse, I discover that she also inspires me a lot.
What materials do you prefer to work with and what is the motivation behind these choices?
I use precious metals, like gold and silver; I like gold for the sake of color but also because of its’ mechanical properties. Pure gold is a nice soft metal– very malleable for bending and kneading. And silver has good electroforming qualities. But I’m also interested in other materials such as aluminum, titanium, tantalum, gemstones, and glass.
In what way do these materials “speak” to you so that you make these selections?
Aluminum is very light in weight, so it has great wear-ability with bigger pieces. Beside that it has great anodizing (colorant) potential.
Titanium is strong and has a pleasant grey color. Using a laser welder it gives great possibilities for designing jewellery.
Tantalum, named for the difficult Tantalus Myth, is a challenging metal to produce and work with. However its fine dark grey color nicely combines with other metals like gold stainless steel or silver.
For me gemstones are a way to add contrasting color, texture and transparency in my pieces. Glass is actually my all time favorite material because while it’s transparent it tricks the eye by appearing soft when actually it’s made from sharp brittle glass. ABOUT JAN:

About Jan:
I LIKE TO:
– design objects and jewellery not to be comfortable functional but joyable
– use tools where they are NOT made for,
– seek for new materials and mistreat them