Interview with Jaroslaw Kolec around the solo exhibition With a Heart for a Stone during the Legnica Jewellery Festival SILVER

At the exhibition we’ll see your works made of flint, amber, and rock crystal. Why did you choose to work with these particular stones?
I look for stones that are special from my point of view, and the features I focus on are optical effects, colour, and pattern. In the jewellery tradition, stones – set in metal – are an integral part of the piece. In my work, I try to prove that the stones themselves can become the main material of the jewellery, while metal may play only a supporting role.

Delving into the study of gemmology, I went through a phase of fascination with legends and stories about how minerals are formed, what properties they have, what they were used for, and what roles they played throughout history. This knowledge changed my perspective and approach to stones. I think it also influenced my choice of stones to work with. I’ve always seen more in them than just matter. According to legend, stones are the devil’s creation. He noticed that Eve was enchanted by the rainbow of colours created by the flowers in paradise, and decided to trap their fleeting and delicate beauty within minerals, thus stirring desire in the human heart. (Stars and Fates, Pub. Gazeta, Czelabińsk, 1993).

Rock crystal was once believed to be a form of ice or fossilised ice, and its name comes from the Greek krystallos, meaning both crystal and ice. Flint is a stone that unites the elements of fire (when struck, it produces sparks), water (which seeps from it when flaked), and earth, from which it is extracted. Amber is the petrified tears of the sisters of Phaethon, who mourned their brother after his tragic death.
Jarosław Kolec. Ring cut from a rock crystal, 2025


One could say that creating jewellery with rock crystals, you’re working with... light. Tell us about the optical properties of these minerals. How do you use them in your designs?
I try to make use of the optical properties of rock crystal, primarily its transparency, which is essential for achieving the effects of light reflection and refraction that I aim for on the crystal’s surfaces. This changes depending on the angle of light, creating various highlights and reflections. Sometimes I manage to find a stone that splits the light inside itself, giving off a rainbow effect.


The exhibition features both works from the early 2000s and your most recent creations. How do you see your artistic development over the past two decades?​
I started with agates, jaspers, lydites, and the like, which I collected in the Kaczawskie Mountains in the early 1980s. Over time, my preferences evolved regarding the colours and patterns found in stones. These days, I’m fascinated by stones such as rock crystal and chocolate flint – they offer great potential for creative exploration, yet also contrast with each other. Crystal represents light, while chocolate flint is distinguished by its dark colour.

Jarosław Kolec. Objects, chocolate flint, 2025


You possess specialist knowledge in the field of stones and have many years of experience working with them. So, let me ask you three surprising facts about the field of mineralogy or gemmology.
For example, quartz (SiO₂) is a mineral that, depending on how and under what conditions it is formed, creates an enormous family of minerals. Its colourless crystalline form is known as rock crystal. When ions such as iron enter its structure, it produces other coloured varieties. It can also appear in cryptocrystalline form, forming chalcedonies – colourful, sometimes multicoloured stones with distinct names – and opal, which is an amorphous substance.

One of the interesting optical phenomena we can observe in stones is pleochroism – the ability to display different colours when viewed from different angles. This effect is often seen in tourmalines or alexandrites, whose colour changes depending on the type of light.

Stones can also contain inclusions – foreign substances trapped within them – which may be solid, liquid, or gaseous. For example, rutile inclusions in rock crystal are known as Venus’ hair.

Rings, striped flint, 2002
From the collection of the Castle Museum in Sandomierz


You have extensive teaching experience – since 1988, you’ve been professionally affiliated with the Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź, where you now lead the Studio of Technology and Materials Science. How does the younger generation of artists handle the long, patience-demanding process of working with stone?
Students more often work with ready-made stones, but there are those who take up the challenge and process materials themselves, such as amber, jet, basalt, marble, agates, labradorites, and jaspers. More and more students are choosing to work with stone by hand for their own projects and find genuine creative satisfaction in this process. Handmade objects are once again of great value in today’s world.


Thank you for the interview and the fascinating introduction to the world of stones.
 

About the Interviewee

Jarosław Kolec is a graduate of the Strzemiński Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź. He earned his diploma in the Jewellery Studio of Professor Andrzej Szadkowski. Since 1988, he has been professionally affiliated with his alma mater, where he currently heads the Studio of Technology and Materials Science at the Jewellery Institute, Faculty of Design Arts. In 2009, he was awarded a PhD in Art. He is also a member of the Polish Gemmological Society and a certified diamond appraiser. He is the founder and member of the G7 Creative Group, active since 2006. He has participated in solo and group exhibitions in Austria, Argentina, Belarus, Belgium, China, Denmark, Spain, Israel, Kazakhstan, Cuba, Germany, Poland, Russia, the USA, Hungary, and the United Kingdom.

About the author

Anna Wójcik-Korbas - coordinator of the Legnica Jewellery Festival SILVER. She works in the Gallery of Art in Legnica(Poland) since 2018. She graduated with a bachelor's degree in the history of art from the University of Silesia in Katowice (Poland). She's a member of the International Amber Association, and a member of the editorial team of the Amber Magazine.