Amber and good design – Amberif 2016

Amberif fair, or the International Fair of Amber, Jewellery and Gemstones took place in Gdansk for the 23rd time. As might be expected from the event of such an experience, also in this year exhibitors turned up numerously and their number oscillated around 480 companies from around the world. Merchants, who attracted to the Polish capital of amber more than 55 countries, including Lithuania, Ukraine, China, Russia, Italy or Germany, can count on a wide range of jewelry, tools, bullion and above all: amber.

Amberif 2016 is not only intended to purchase and sale – organizers care about the appropriate setting of the fair. In addition to numerous symposia, aiming to expand the expertise of the participants, on the exhibition halls you could encounter interesting art exhibitions, including Trend book 2016+, Amberif Design Award 2016, which for several years have constituted a fixed point of the program of the fair. And completely new one – the Eye of Telsiai exhibited at the stand of the Vilnius Academy of Art or Geocięcie (Geo-cut) or Dam ci kamyk (I’ll give you a stone), exhibited at the stand of the Strzemiński Academy of Fine Arts in Lodz.

 

The fair also was also hounoured by the annual AMBER LOOK PROJECT 2016 Gala, exhibitions held outside the fair and prizes awarded among others as a part of Mercurius Gedanensis.

Fair is quite absorbing – it is one of the few moments in the year when people with similar interests meet in one place, and hence conversations and exchange of experiences are endless. In this article I would like to focus on what happened at the exhibition halls, although as I mentioned, there were plenty of events accompanying the fair. It will allow for a wider discussion of these attractions and jewelry, which in my opinion, deserve special attention.

The first example will be an exhibition that could be seen at booth ART7. Red displays and beautiful lumps of natural amber were eye-catching. Black dress, because that was the title of the collection presented, is a proof that even in the space that is synonymous with commercialism and ruthless business we can “stumble” on the true sensitivity and without mining words: Art. ART7 company shows that amber is a noble material, from which you can do something included in the definition of good design.

Another large company specializing in products made of amber, which not only drew attention to the original design, but was recognized at the fair organized by Mercurius Gedanensis competitnion winning GRANDPRIX in the category of Design, was A2 Amber House.

Staying with the main prizes awarded in the Mercurius Gedanensis gold medal in the category Jewelry Championship went to the company Bondarowski, for the ring made by Krzysztof Bondaruk.

Every year, during Amberif students of Strzemiński Academy of Fine Arts in Lodz award a prize to the company that stands out from others offering freshness, innovation and above all, design abilities. This year, the Amber Sphere went to the company Ostrowski Design. The award is unique in itself, because it is not easy to meet the requirements of the chapter, in which the oldest person is not more than 24 years old.

Visitors to Amberif could also take the opportunity to meet with the representatives of other industry events. It was a good moment to the learn about the costs of the exhibitions and plan the next step in the development of one’s own brand. Good advice was offered not only by the Polish organizers of the fair, but also the representatives of Inhorgenty held in Munich or Palakiss taking place in Vicenza.

And finally, most importantly – jewelry. Just like it was last year, also this year I prepared for you a summary of exciting new products following global trends. I hope that, like me, they will be an interesting discovery for you and it will convince you that human creativity has no boundaries or limits. The submission trends proved to be difficult, because I found a lot of interesting works and the fact that some of them do not fit to the key chosen by me does not diminish them in any way.