Danni Schwaag
Jeweller
Published: 21.03.2022
dannischwaag.deBio
Danni Schwaag is a German-based jewellery artist, living and working in Bremen. After being a trainee as a goldsmith she studied gemstone- and jewellery design at Campus Idar-Oberstein and did an Erasmus year in 2006 at the Escola Massana in Barcelona. Danni graduated in 2008. She participated in several group exhibitions in Europe, the United States, and Asia and had solo exhibitions in the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Australia, and Germany. In 2008 her work was awarded from the Bertha Heraeus und Kathinka Platzhoff Stiftung; Deutsches Goldschmiedehaus Hanau and 2013 with the Bremen advancement award for applied art for her collection "l'art pour l'art".“I am fascinated by materials, their properties and haptics, and how they change while I work. I love to puzzle to find compositions and explore many possibilities.”
Statement
The “personal” in making jewellery, which sometimes rises from an inner impulse, seems to be the most valuable characteristic, and that’s what I want to find for my work. The original idea for a piece of jewellery can transform during the work into something completely unexpected. The process should always stay open. Where does it come from what am I doing? where will it go?There is falling something into me, and that it can fall in, I have to be empty. Is it possible to be empty? Free from thoughts? from these factors and surprises during the work process, which I recognize as a gift, my work is developing.
About Foam
When I search for mother-of-pearl on the internet for my work, I enter words like a mother-of-pearl shell, seashell, or pearl oyster into the search engine. The results then show mother-of-pearl shells as decorative objects, e.g. for soap (sometimes also for jewellery). This is how I got the idea to work the soap like the mother of pearl. I carefully begin to grind and mill the soft material. I place the mother-of-pearl bowl and the soap opposite each other and enhance the soap bar by working out the pearly haptics. Then after a few hand washes the “pearls” are washed away. During earlier travels, I took the small hand soaps from the hotels and collected them. Then came corona, the end of travelling and the beginning of a lot of hand washing. That’s how soap became a “cult object” for me. During Munich Jewellery Week 2020 I offered it in the show at the gallery door as “pay what you can”, so everyone could wash their hands with a foamy-pearly unique piece. The pearl shell that once functioned as a “soap dish” and “decorative object” is now elaborated with a pearly feel, pearls that originally grow inside the shell. Now wearable as a necklace, it lies on the chest like an amulet. The surface structures look astonishingly similar, but the materiality with its characteristics is completely opposite.
About Mother of Pearls
mother of pearl / perl(en)mutter / perlinmouter / mater perlarum / madreperla perlemor / nacre / nakar...
...my -so to speak- obsession for mother of pearl started during my studies in Idar-Oberstein when I was looking for a pearl necklace – not a classical one. I wanted to do one on my own. Visiting all the gemstone shops in Idar-Oberstein I found a beautiful shell: “Pinctada Maxima” – from which I developed a pearl necklace, a chain made out of many oval rings cutting out of the material. Since then I work my way through the material, so to speak.
I re-interpreted the theme of “pearl” by elaborating implied pearls but keeping them connected to the material.
What is the material doing with me? what do I discover while working?
What is happening? how nature is inspiring me? how human beings? how I?
Having questions in my mind and being curious, that's often my start, that keeps me going on... the process should always be open - then my work can develop...
Fascinated by the luster of the pearls, I analyze the pearl shell and create my own pearls out of the material, which is originally growing in the oyster.
About Organ
In the series “organ”, forms are shaped out of mother of pearl inspired by human organs. I mirrored a part of the piece, which is made out of Galalith, a milk stone, a material that has been used in the art deco era. I´m fascinated by the variety of the material; the mother of pearl with its luster, its hardness on one hand and its brittleness on the other; the Galalith with its sensitivity and softness; natural and artificial; complete and divided; healthy and destructed.
About to Stir
In this series, I put together relics from art production and transfer them from fine art into applied art. To Stir is a process of movement, transformation, and excitement - important elements to create art. a stirring staff, which was used for years to stir acrylic paint, is the main part of this work.
After having been just a stick of timber it is now covered with almost a kilo of acrylic paint mainly white, with fine streaks of other colours.
So what happens when cutting it into slices and looking into it?
A tool that was needed for creating a painting turns into a painting for the body.
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