Katerina Glinou

Bio

Katerina Glinou is an Athens based architect and the inspirer of "Bead A Boo" Jewellery. She graduated from the School of Architecture of the National Technical University of Athens from where she also received a Master’s degree in Urban and Regional Planning. After finishing her studies she started experimenting with a wide range of materials including thermoplastics, polymer clay, recycled materials, paper, fabrics and felt.

Statement

Katerina Glinou makes exclusively silver and bronze jewellery by using traditional methods. Her casual jewellery pieces belong to "Bead A Boo" collection and her contemporary jewellery is part of her Conceptual works. This category includes art jewellery projects that combine mixed techniques and contradictory materials. All pieces result from significant facts in the artist's life and relate to a specific period. They are contemporary jewelry pieces and their purpose is to narrate a story without sticking to the limitation of being practical or wearable.

As an architect I have spent a lot of time designing spaces or objects of large scale which never took shape. This is a heartbreaking reality for most creative professionals whose work depends on other people. Jewellery making is a way to give life to my designs without depending on others. In the end, I learn to accept and cherish the imperfections of my creation. For me, any kind of handmade work is a mindful procedure. As a maker - "artist" I have to dive inside my soul and express my inner self by making an object. During my jewellery journey, I have made dozens of mistakes that disappointed me and helped me to move forward at the same time. It is a constant condition of falling and standing up and for me, it's a great lesson of life. Most of my work is inspired by nature, flowers, rocks, weed, and other botanical and organic forms.


“Prepei” 2023
I had the honor to participate in the 2024 Athens Jewelry Week - JELO6 Project as part of the "Declaration of Sentiments" project and exhibition. "Declaration of Sentiments: A New Dialogue" is a group exhibition that speaks to equal human rights and dreams of a creative world that respects women and embraces female energy. The exhibition was curated by Niki Stylianou and Sofia Zarari.
I decided to converse with "Daily Obedience Routines“ of Snem Yildirim by creating a necklace (or a banner-flag) that refers to the traditional Greek embroidery women used to sew for home decoration. They would write messages on them to encourage or to preach to other people (mostly women). I braided a colorful surface and sew the word PREPEI (“prepei” means “you must”) and a large eye on the one side. On the other side of the banner I wrote the word OXI (“ochi” means NO) as a counteraction to the first command. While the “PREPEI” side is symmetrical and strict the “ΟΧΙ” is free and doesn't follow any rules.


“Scrapllery” 2022
After reading Yuval Noah Harari's book "Sapiens" I realized that humans are capable of creating miracles and destroying everything at the same time.  And it seems that we had this talent since ...forever. We humans are doing our best to drain Mother Earth. This is something undoubtable. We eat too much, we kill too many, we inject poisons into earth and at the same time we remove everything that can be useful to our lifestyle without thinking about the future.
Will all these natural resources be there tomorrow as well? How long does it take for them to refresh themselves? What if one day everything derived from earth comes to an end?
For the last year I went through a recycle and reuse mania not only in my everyday life but also in my art and work. This means that I struggled to produce the minimum waste when I work and to reuse materials. My workshop's trash bin becomes full every 4 to 5 weeks because there is not much to throw away.
With all these things in mind I started creating paper clay flowers almost a year ago. The paper clay I use is handmade from old newspapers or egg cups that I keep. It is a challenging material because of its texture that can make the sculpting procedure very tricky. But the moment it's ready and dry you can do miracles with it. You can file it, carve it, drill it easily and it doesn't break. The objects from paper clay are extremely lightweight and can be painted with every type of pigment.
And then there are all the silver scraps and dust that I keep when I make jewelry. I decided to use these pieces and make organic shapes such as twigs, leaves and thorns. These natural shapes are appealing to me and they give me the freedom to improvise. Most of the times the materials and their shapes lead me to the final design. I just listen to them and it takes me where it desires.
The conceptual jewelry collection of 2022 is again inspired by nature. I named it Scrapllery (from scrap and jewellery) and it consists of 3 pieces that are actually 4 (!). There is a necklace, a ring and an earring (ear cuff) that can be worn as a brooch too.
The brooch was selected by jury and included in the 34 finalists among 133 talented participants around the world at the Arte y Joya Competition 2022
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cksvtg-oQeg/?img_index=1
https://www.instagram.com/p/CjkU-nZoSqY/

 
"Soul Garden"  2020-2021
There is no doubt that the 2020 pandemic changed the perspective of our lives, our thoughts and feelings and for artists was a great opportunity to isolate themselves from the outer world and rethink their art.
In my country, the first lockdown began in March 2020. In Greece, during March we see the first signs of Spring, nature gets wild, the sun is extra bright and the sky blue and clear. Some of us were lucky enough to live in beautiful places where we could find a forest near our house and enjoy the beauty of nature and all stages of its rebirth. During that time I had the opportunity to observe nature and look at details.
By the second phase of the pandemic, Greece went through a strict lockdown in the last month of autumn. By this time days become shorter and the weather colder. The trees and flowers I used to observe and admire [during the first lockdown] started to lose their color and strength. The naked branches and the dry bushes changed the scenery. Yellow, brown, black and grey replaced the green and vivid colors while the beautiful metamorphosis of nature left everything to rest and stay quiet for a while. During my walks I became a collector by picking from the ground pieces of dry and dead twigs, thorny branches and flowers. These findings haunted me for a while. They were dead but extremely beautiful and all I wanted was to give them life again. I visualized them perfect, beautiful and alive. Powerful and proud. At that time my soul was trying not to collapse by the fear of the pandemic, the constant deprivation of social life and freedom, the threat of illness, isolation and death. Those dry – dead – dark – fragile pieces of nature gave me hope. My inner self would bloom again and these phenomenal dead finds would be reborn. I came up with the idea of a jewelry collection that consists of pieces made from those dead nature’s findings and other materials. A collection reflecting my deepest feelings of fear, frustration and hope at the same time. My garden of feelings and thoughts would become the “Soul Garden” jewelry collection.
The pieces’ names were inspired by nature and the botanical world.
 
"Seaweed" 2017
The idea behind this design was an attempt to capture the movement of seaweed. This was quite challenging because the medium was copper that is a hard and stiff material. For this project I used copper wires. The wires were hammered in order to form a wide shape that resembles seaweed. This collection includes a necklace and a brooch.
 
"Blooming" 2016
The “Blooming” jewelry project includes two multicolored collar necklaces inspired by colorful flower gardens. For this purpose, I had to find a colorful medium to make flower-like shapes. In addition, the goal was to make impressive jewelry pieces by using simple materials and tools. Felt has all the attributes to achieve this goal. It is easy to handle and comes in a wide variety of colors. With felt pieces, I created spiral-shaped beads to make abstract flowers. It was challenging to find a way to use simple materials and shapes to create something unique. 
 
"In_spiral" 2015
The In_Spiral jewelry Collection was “inspired” and created to be presented at the Design Lab Exhibition of Athens, in 2015. The “Inspiral” jewelry is made from felt. It took its name from the spiral shaped beads that cover all the jewelry pieces of this collection. The word “inspiration” is also hidden in this name. The making of the main piece “The Bust” was an incredible experience. More than 200 hand-rolled beads were used in order to decorate this vest statement piece.
 

CV