Leyla Taranto
Jeweller
/
MunichSchmuckFair2025
Published: 06.03.2025
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tozdesign.com
Bio
Leyla Taranto is a jewellery designer based in Istanbul, Turkey, with a BA in Sociology. Her interest in jewellery, which began with a childhood fondness for bracelets and necklaces and was later formalised with atelier training, is now a full-time passion and occupation. Through her brand name toz design, Taranto continues to experiment with both traditional and non-traditional materials for jewellery design, including scrap materials.Statement
La-di-da CollectionLa-di-da brings baroque opulence into a contemporary, wearable form with a cheeky twist.
Traditionally, highly decorative motifs like the wooden ornaments used in this collection would be applied to interiors, architecture, or furniture rather than worn as jewellery. I wanted to transform these ornate elements into wearable artifacts—brooches! By doing so, I reimagined their purpose, turning them into personal adornments rather than static embellishments of space.
To balance the boldness of these architectural decorative forms, which I painted with bright colours, I incorporated a delicate pearl circle. The pearls nod to classic luxury, while the sculpted decorative piece keeps the design playful.
Tulips in a Vase collection
When invited by curator Ali Bakova to participate in the 'Tulipomania' (referring to a speculative frenzy named "Tulip Mania" in 17th century Holland over the sale of tulip bulbs) exhibition, I recalled a theme I worked on many years ago, so I revisited my Flower(s) in a Vase pin collection, singling out the “Tulips”.
Tulips happen to be flowers that have had two vases exclusively designed for them.”Tulipiere” is a Dutch vase made to hold many tulips, with a separate opening for each tulip; and the ”Laledan”—drawing its name from ‘lale’, the Turkish word for tulip— is designed to hold only one tulip. I chose the shape of these two vases for my pins. In this selection, as a contrast with the specialised vessels Tulipiere and Laledan, I also include a bottle and a jug which, unlike the others, were designed for a different function altogether—storing and the transporting liquids—but have historically taken on the role of a vase in addition to their primary usage.
Remains collection
To create the Remains collection, I salvaged discarded ornamental scrap wood pieces from the floor of an Istanbul custom frame shop. Without knowing what I would do with them, I took the remains to my studio. Back in the woodshop, I began to experiment with the fragments, and through a series of innovative choices, created one-of-a-kind or limited editions consisting of new forms that reflected my own conceptual, stylistic and structural interpretations of the original scraps.
As a designer, I found it gratifying to be able to provide these scraps an unanticipated usefulness and to enable them to recover a wholeness all their own by playing with the juxtaposition of what is precious (wood) and what is not precious (waste).
Threshold Series
A threshold is both figuratively and literally a point after which a transition begins. It is the moment or position of stillness between one physical or emotional place and another.
For the exhibition “Between a break and a breakdown: Jewelry as a mirror of our time” which is a part of the 5th edition of The Jerusalem Biennale, my brooch, necklace and earrings reflect on the theme ‘adaptation’. I chose aluminium threshold materials, sold in metres and used at bases of doors between rooms. These aluminium strips cover seams between rooms that tell us that change is afoot, they smooth over the difference, they make the transition less jarring. In a sense, they facilitate adaptation to the new space. But they are themselves a constant reminder of the transition and the adaptation that will follow.
CV 
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