The Dialects of Jewellery. A lecture by Katharina Dettar, part of AUTOR 2026

On Friday, 15 May 2026, jeweller and educator Katharina Dettar will deliver a lecture exploring how jewellery operates not as a single language, but as a set of shifting, overlapping dialects — material, cultural, and conceptual.

The talk is accompanied by a curated selection of jewellery pieces by graduates and teaching staff from the BA Jewellery Design programme at Central Saint Martins, UAL, brought by Katharina and displayed throughout the session. The works will be available to see and handle directly, inviting an intimate, tactile encounter with contemporary jewellery practice.

Works on display by: Daisy Brimble, Giles Last, Joey Zhong, Katharina Dettar, Katy Hackney, Lily Murphy-Johnson, Lucie Gledhill, Max Warren, Noah Williams, Punch Suwannakit, Sally Collins, Viktoria Gorny and Will Moore.

The lecture is part of the AUTOR 2026 programme — International Contemporary Jewellery Fair, 16–17 May, at the National Museum of Romanian History, Bucharest.


When: Friday, 15 May 2026, from 10:00 to 12:00. Free entry, registration required.


Katharina Dettar is a jeweller and educator whose practice explores the notions of jewellery and objects through materials. With a deep awareness of the origin and lifecycle of materials, her work investigates themes of waste, sustainability, and nature.

Her work has been exhibited in museums and galleries across Europe, North America, and Asia, and is held in public and private collections including the CODA Museum Apeldoorn, Museum Arnhem, Muzeum Českého Ráje Turnov, the International Collection of Contemporary Jewellery in Legnica, and the Royal College of Art Collection, London.

Currently a Senior Lecturer and Year 1 Leader at Central Saint Martins and a guest lecturer at the Royal College of Art, Katharina previously managed Gallery S O, London, from 2018 until its closure in 2021. She lectures, leads workshops, exhibits internationally, and regularly participates in panel discussions.

Katharina holds an MA from the Royal College of Art and has previously studied in Idar-Oberstein, Lappeenranta, and Barcelona. She is the recipient of the Talente Prize in Munich and the Förderpreis des Landes Rheinland-Pfalz.