In May 2022, I had the great honor of participating in the GemGeneve exhibition in Switzerland. It is dedicated to “fine jewelery”, “high jewelery”, antique and top-class gems. GemGeneve is an exquisite show, located at the very top of the world’s best exhibitions, attracting connoisseurs looking for treasures and lovers of beauty.

Here is a short video showing the splendor of the treasures on GemGeneve.

 

As one of 5 people in the world, I was accepted and invited to be the part of the “Emerging Talents” section, which was personally composed by the organizers of the event (thank you, wonderful Nadege, that thanks to you I had a chance to appear there). In addition to this part, contemporary jewelery designers also presented their work in the “Designer Vivarium” section, curated by Vivienne Becker. She is a well-known and respected art historian, writer, and opinion maker who also works for the “Financial Times” as editor of “How to spend it”. Personally, I had the honor of meeting her and I can add that she is also an extremely charming person. “Designer Vivarium” hosted 8 designers. A total of 13 designers from around the world had a chance to present themselves during GemGeneve 2022.

And in all of this me …

The atmosphere of my stand was, of course, graced by brilliant photos by Margo Skwara https://www.margoskwara.com/ They always attract attention thanks to the mesmerizing gaze of almost magical girls wearing my jewelry. Thank you again for your wonderful work, Margo <3 You can read more about this photo session in my previous blog post https://rekamistworzone.com/en/margo-skwara-photography-and-iwona-tamborska/

And this is a video showing the entire stand:

 

 

Everything that I experienced and saw during GemGeneve was imprinted in my memory very strongly. The amount of wonderful treasures still gives me goosebumps when I think of them. Never before have I seen so many gems and works of the highest class at once in one place (even Grünes Gewölbe in Dresden – the richest collection of gems in Europe fell pale in my opinion in terms of variety and quality). The exhibition differs from all the others in that it really has a very careful selection of traders and artists who have been invited to participate. One of the things that lit a spark of joy in my heart is the fact that my work was displayed LITERALLY 5 meters from Faberge (Tsar’s Collection) works – courtessy of the Faberge Foundation, or Cartier’s watchmaking artworks.

 

The photos show jewellery pieces by Rene Lalique – belonging to the collection of “ZEBRAK LONDON MONAKO”. Just like that – a few meters from my stand. If I had the courage, maybe I would ask if I could touch these treasures. But I didn’t have the courage. The video was shot in the morning, before the opening of the exhibition, so in the background you can hear a rather hip song from the radio and other stands are not yet completely full.

 

How does it feel to exhibit right next to masterpieces of your “jewellery god”, to whose works I’ve only been able to sigh through the museum’s windows (but mostly internet)? UNBELIEVABLE

All this meant that despite my great fatigue (Covid, which I suffered from pretty badly throughout February, the outbreak of the war in Ukraine and the extremely tense situation that had prevailed in Poland since 28/02/2022, lack of sleep, which I had suffered from since February, a huge amount of work and preparations for the exhibition) I felt like I was flying on clouds. Every day I got wings from the amount of endorphins and happiness that I could exhibit at such a place. Although I couldn’t believe it (I was presented JUST NEXT to Faberge, Lalique, Fouquet !!!!), I got so many words of admiration and compliments every day that they lit me up from the inside. I was even called the “New Fouquet” and my style the “New Art Nouveau”. I have given various interviews, one of which I have already blogged about. It was for the  Like a beautiful Jewel magazine.

Below are some close-ups of my works:

The biggest impact on me had meetings with several people. One of them is one of the most famous artisanal gem cutters in the world – Victor Tuzlukov, who collaborates with various artist-jewelers, such as Ilgiz Fazulzyanov. He stopped to look at my works, we talked about art, its values, and the importance of inspiration. He told me about his new projects that will soon have premiere and leave the jewellery lovers in awe. I even had a chance to hold 2 stones in my hand, which he personally cut. And then he told me the biggest compliment I’ve ever heard in my life that made me burst into tears of happiness. I will not repeat it because it is my treasure. But I will always be grateful to him for these great words.

One of the people who interviewed me was Laura Inghirami – founder of the famous Donna Jewel Italy blog https://www.donnajewel.com/en/, is a valued opinion-maker and jewelery expert, one of the “Leaders of the Future” ( under 30 years of age) Forbes list. The situation was surprising because when she came to me, I didn’t recognize her right away. Laura introduced herself very kindly, said she loves my work, follows me on the internet and would like to interview me for her blog “Donna Jewel”. Suddenly a light flashed in my head and I shouted “DONNA JEWEL ITALY ?? !!!!” More fun was the fact that the person she came with didn’t even realize how famous Laura was. So I talked about the “Wizard Beetle” who charmed her and Laura made a short video of this story. Thank you very much for visiting – it was a pleasure to meet you 🙂

I was also visited by Richa Goyal Sikri – journalist, writer, jewellery connoisseur. I enjoyed telling her all the stories hidden in my works, and she seemed to be charmed by them and enjoyed them like fairy tales. I love such moments in my work, I love it when I have the chance to tell why this piece is so special and when I see how my sensitivity embedded in a given item moves the other person. Thank you for your time and sensitivity, dear Richa. I hope we’ll have a chance to talk again soon 🙂

I also met a person whose work in the world of promoting the culture of jewelry I have admired for years. Katerina Perez is a superstar of the world of jewelery experts, blogger https://katerinaperez.com/, opinion maker, art connoisseur. She tells the world about jewelry as a field of art, discovers treasures and their creators, educates by sharing her vast knowledge of the topic. Thanks to that she changes the people’s perception of jewelry’s value, measured from now on not only by the number of carats. I love her posts, entries, publications – I always read them with curious eyes, because they are extremely inspiring for me. I was very intimidated when I met her, but she turned out to be a very kind and warm person. She even published an Instagram reels (I think that’s what it’s called, I get confused by all the Instagram names) of my “Wizard Beetle” and the Bunny ring-watch. With her consent, I publish the selfie we took – I am extremely proud of it.

And this is the Wizard himself, about which you can read more here https://rekamistworzone.com/en/produkt/wizard-beetle-brooch-pendant/

GemGenève – Geneva International Gem & Jewelery Show surprised me with one more, extremely nice thing. In addition to the extraordinary care for the comfort of each participant in the show and the great respect with which I felt treated, my ego was also very pleasantly tickled. My work was published in the AMA magazine, in the article “Spotlight on the Jewellery Heritage” by Carine Claude. Many thanks to the GemGeneve Press Team and the AMA editorial staff for noticing my work and such a great distinction <3 I would also like to thank Pierre Naquin (Director of Publication) and Carine Claude (Author) for finding time to visit me and a nice conversation during the show at GemGenève. It was a pleasure to meet you!
My piece chosen for the magazine was “Khepri – the Scarab goddess”.

 

Everything that I experienced motivates me to work harder, to self-improve and grow. I know that there is still a long way to go, but it is an extraordinary joy and an honor to be in such an exquisite place and feel that I am appreciated.

Now I will focus on showing more of the treasures that I saw during the exhibition. This is the world’s largest emerald to be Guinness World Record certified. It is owned by Eshed Gemstar and Avraham Eshed.

It was not available to the eyes of every visitor, but thanks to the great courtesy of Mr. Liran Eshed from Eshed, I had the great pleasure of holding this treasure in my hands. This whole crystal is one pure emerald and the green light on its sides is the flashlight, thanks to which one can trully understand how beautifully deep-green the whole pieces is.

Below are photos of sculptures (Swiss company) in rock crystals, obsidian and other semi-precious stones. They made a great impression on me and other visitors. Some were the size of a man. I will just add that most of the presented works found new owners within the first day.

Below, a photo gallery with antique jewelery.

In this section of the gallery you can see the famous Cartier tigers, the ram bracelet from Bulgari or the red enamel (Bulgari) snake bracelet.

Several photos of emeralds, Paraiba tourmalines, pearls, diamonds and other gemstones present on the show. Some emeralds were the size of a child’s fist (diamonds as well), pearls were about 2 cm in diameter and above, but unfortunately you can not see it well in the photos. A trully tasty sight were some gems, already cut and arranged in the shape of necklaces, waiting only to be framed. It was a feast for the eyes. I also feel, that I should mention a definitely new trend. Paraiba tourmaline with its neon-blue color, which until now was not among the top gemstones sought after, this year it seemed to be the most popular treasure.

Now for an extra story – only partly related to GemGeneve, but directly related to my trip to Geneva.

When packing for the show, I forgot to take my sketches from Poland with which I wanted to complete the look of my stand. A wonderful person who looked after me during the whole stay came to the rescue (thank you Anna <3). She said to send her pictures of the sketches by e-mail and her husband would “print them at work”.

This is the story how my sketches bear the proud official CERN logo and have become a relic for me. The visit to CERN is one of the most exciting experiences of my life and it was on my dream list. Even though I didn’t see much, I am grateful for what I saw. And I saw the first server where the idea of the Internet was born, a piece of the Hadron collider, the fundamental equation, a piece of an antimatter trap. You read it right. Because CERN has an ANTIMATTER FACTORY!  I even slept for a while in a sphere in which a warm voice whispers the tale of “why do particles have mass at all”.

This is how CERN connects to GemGeneve 🙂

Here in the photo you can see my sketches printed at CERN at the booth during GemGeneve.

I would like to warmly encourage you to visit GemGeneve in 2023, where I hope to exhibit again. See you in Geneva in May 2023!