 Good evening everyone and welcome to Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum I can't see all of your faces anymore But I know there are a lot of familiar ones out there and it's great to be here tonight for Standing Room only Carl Fritsch. Thank you for coming I'm Alexandra Cunningham Cameron and I'm a curator of contemporary design and hint secretarial scholar here at Cooper Hewitt And we're so pleased that you're here tonight to celebrate the second annual NYC Jewelry Week annual With our program Carl Fritsch Jewelry on the Edge So Cooper Hewitt is proud to be the official museum sponsor of NYC Jewelry Week It's the first and only local week Dedicated to promoting and celebrating the world of jewelry design through innovative Education-focused programming like what we have for you tonight We're thrilled to welcome thrilled to welcome Wellington New Zealand based artist Carl Fritsch and renowned gallerist and owner of salon 94 Genie Greenberg Broaton Carl will first give a presentation on his work for about 20 minutes And then following this I'll moderate a talk with Genie and Carl We certainly have a lot of ground to cover But we want to make sure to leave some time at the end for some of your questions So just before I get started, I'd like to formally introduce our guests this evening Carl Fritsch began his education at the Goldsmith school in Forsheim and studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich He has taught in art schools across the world Exhibited internationally and his work has been acquired for public collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art The Stidelik Museum the Victorian Albert Museum the National Gallery Victoria Museum New Zealand Te Papa Tonga Wara He's running a practice that's focused on the ring as most of you all know Fritsch explores taste Aesthetics and desire as he manipulates perceived ideas of preciousness and convention The highly covetable rings have seen him win numerous awards and become a cult figure in contemporary jewelry He also works collaboratively with a range of artists including artist Francis upper chard and furniture designer Martino Gamper In 2006 Carl received the highly prestigious international Francois van den Bosch award Jeannie Greenberg Rowett in is a gallerist art advisor and curator a fierce activist She's committed to feminist and progressive politics in keeping with her belief in arts power to bring about social change Greenberg Rowett and founded her first gallery space in 2002 later adding venues on the Bowery in 2007 and 2010 Salon 94 is a unique project space in her home on 94th Street that explores the notion of Traditional white box gallery many of you have probably seen Carl show up that opened last night Next year she will consolidate her galleries to the former National Academy of Design on three East 89th Street just a couple of blocks away She is champion artist such as Huma Baba Judy Chicago Katie Granon David Hammons Kailashtyn Harris Marilyn Minter Laurie Simmons and Betty Woodman among many others Carl Fritz's rings have been featured in her program since 2007 Greenberg Roten is radical in breaking hierarchies between design and high art in 2017 she founded Salon 94 design to represent Max Lam Philippe Malone Who was a 2018 wallpaper designer of the year and Gaitano Peche? Greenberg Roten sits on the boards of white columns and performer She's a member of the ADA a board and has served on the freeze art fair committee So without further ado, I would love for you all to give a warm welcome to Carl Fritz Thanks a lot. Thank you everybody for coming. I've got 20 minutes So fast new seatbelts. I've got to run you through my ring life Here we go. Okay. That's That's where I grown up. This is a place called Sontofe and it's in the Algoir Alps on the Border to Austria. It's lots of rain there. The clouds get stuck in the mountains Long winters I grew up on skis There's this beautiful Algoir brown fee there because there's lots of grass And when I was bored at school, I Started scratching with a screwdriver Those little figures they they like an inch tall and I had a screwdriver and some kind of soap stone and that was what actually got me interested after 13 years finishing high school to do something with my hands and The idea was the tradition in that area was wood carving you know those those That kind of style, but maybe luckily I missed the deadline being 1718 and When my mother Went to a watchmaker. She met a woman there and she said oh her son is studying watchmaking at a jewelry and watchmaking school in Pforzheim. So she met that woman and She told her son he said that watchmaking jewelry school and She suggested that to me. I thought yeah, well, I I'll try so I went there to this Goal to meet the shule in Pforzheim you get a three-year apprenticeship there and It was actually love on the first side I got in right away and I loved everything about it the tools You know, you were we were busy like for for one month. You do only file bits of Brass very boring interesting enough those pieces. This is kind of how you learn jewelry you and those pieces They I think that they are their special shawry of jewelry. They are Designed and made to be only to be measured You know, you make them and then the teacher goes and measures if you did it exactly the right size as the drawing so that's How it all started then at that school you learn a white a wide range of techniques like this is all Stone-setting, you know digging up those metal surfaces properly setting those stones in and you know extensively learning this After two years at that school you have a very good background in techniques and then to finish off this apprenticeship You had to go finish it off in a company and I I went to a small silver jewelry producing company in Pforzheim That interesting bit was that being learning that jewelry in Commercial conventional jewelry is just like produced like any mass produced object like a card You know the jewel is sit there one gets like a bag and he only cuts off the sprue the next one just Sands it the next one polishes it and so I went through all these stages of production and Also through the model making department Which is you know where the designs are made but designing there meant the boss comes Like once a month puts a magazine in front of you and said it'll make something like this just a little bit smaller So anyway, there are some things I I made there But this I knew this is not how I want to make jewelry. So You know relating back to the cow you see in the first image. This is a little cow utter on a pin So that was after this apprenticeship I went back to my hometown and I just Started doing things I felt like doing so this this utter is like a little container. You can open it up and I was just making things I saw around me like this Little strawberry. It's like an inch tall and it's not any strawberry. It's one strawberry from the garden It's I just exactly copied that strawberry it's Identical to the real one almost a same thing it opens up and you can put something in it and I was just chasing away those fruits and vegetables and you know, where do I go with that and I I Heard about jewelry Class at the Academy of Fine Art in Munich. They had jewelry and Hollowware Department. So I went there with my sheets of vegetables and Showed it to the professor Herman Junger was a press professor there for the jewelers You will know he's a very important figure figure for just the contemporary jewelry word his work mostly Comes from draw interpreting drawings in a very free way and just keeping Keeping it all alive in metal then So Herman looked at him. Yeah, okay. I mean, I think it was just strange enough for him to get me in Then there wasn't I wasn't at Academy and you know in a mountain boy and you know, then there's all about art and What's jewelry? What's art? What's contemporary jewelry? What's the problem a a lot of confusion you're thinking about things and You know cows see theories you could visit all classes there. It's very open You studied there for a minimum of five years. So you really given time to find your language So it didn't take long to get me in trouble I made These works of almost a year in and I called them for Chandler, which is like disgust them There was lots of beautiful gold work done and I in the sense of you know jewelry is Medium to attract attention. I thought you know something ugly might actually work better to attract attention than something Beautiful and Yeah, it took me quite a while to make something Like this, but you know, we got it got into a quite heated discussion and Herman didn't like he probably didn't more like the attitude about it in The actual piece but anyway, I I thought I need to take a break. I need to see other places I need to see the world and I came to New York and 30 years ago for the first time. I Was lucky. I found the Julian Mario I Would see the unfortunate died not too long ago and Yeah, this was the few for where I was living between B and C on 8th Street It was quite yeah, some friends when I said him come over they said, oh, no, I don't want to be killed And look where I'm now But You know walking around Immediately, I got to understand, you know Pop-up where it came from, you know, this refrigeration business on Bowery. I'm not sure if it's still there but I had my go at like a Pop-up jewelry like Highway on a chopstick on a potato sandwich brooch. They like as big as a hand or Potato on a chopstick on a gun sandwich So they painted metal Back home and This is the Arimatash in Byroy the King's castle and I just the use of Stones colored stones the whole building covered with stones a Mosaic and Milano train station, you know out of little stones. I especially like to spiky hair on the guy's link or This is a 12th century Venetian necklace these little buildings are all put together out of tiny little micro mosaics So I had my go at stones again, you know learning properly stone setting then it was kind of that mosaic style gave me You know the idea how I could just you know cover surfaces. So I found like those Crystals polished little crystals and created pieces You know some first rings like that or it allowed me those colored stones and Represuried allowed me to go quite decorative just probably the most decorative ones I did but there's like, you know emeralds on top of this Bulb and mix of our guides and Carniolian Carniolian, and then I thought a very clever. Oh I just you know gift the people Permanent market and they can design it themselves. It's not sure this wasn't too successful But then reducing those shapes and it's just is still academy time. This is the first pieces I used Casting again, you know a technique I learned in industry to just multiply Things so this is in this time just use as one of a kind and leaving the you know like air bubbles or leaving things from casting on and not trying to refinish it and a very key moment in Yeah, my whole making Is that ring? because to cast like the ring before I The best way the cheapest way to get metal was going to the pawn shop and buy old jewelry So that's what I usually did and then melt it down and in just you know one Moment Having just this work in front of me. I I Started fixing them. So, you know when the phone broker took the stone up because he that has resale value Yeah, you know I filled the the gap again with a gold filling or You know rings like this it's been classic conventional jewelry But it's been rejected somebody needed the money or whatever sold it away and It allowed me to have my input my manipulation on it And I felt very comfortable with it because you know, this is pieces that kind of jewelry I learnt making in full time. This is the jewelry I grew up with my aunties my my mother would wear and I could just now Gave me a way to turn them into something completely different or you know fixing the ring shank Giving them a whole new character like The ring offered its new design itself, you know I just had to help the ring to become a new one and it almost felt like a jewelry Psychiatrist, you know having those rejects from you know, they've been rejects and I get I bring them into this jewelry life on a Very different level again I've always been interested in the processes that are involved in the making, you know This also cast 14 karat gold cast on the 18 karat gold and just what gold does through the casting process It gets oxidized. It's all brown and I just I Like the look it's a real thing, you know, it's what gold does that itself It's not I'm adding this to it It that's how it looks like and I just like showing that as well and when you wear it Polishes itself so the metal quality will you know show it's show itself always you know Art thing and there's always wondering where this kind of comes from and then it's actually not too long ago in my aunties garden I realized, you know, I saw this rail that they built so, you know, my aunties They just they want to have a rail for that. Yes. They just find what they have and just you know Stick it together. That's it. It's it's Immediately it looks like because that's what they wanted and It's just I think you're seeing this then making the jewelry it's You it took me a long time to realize, you know, that actually those how much those things that I've seen growing up influenced me this very happy woman is a car registration officer in South Australian Perth Was very happy to take have a photo taken. I just came To me that you know, you go around on the other side of the world This was still living in Germany, but conventional jewelry just looks the same Wherever you go. It's quite shocking It's actually quite interesting. There is a great video or interview with a Japanese architect up here Hiroshi some Buichi Who he says that in architecture as well that you know how? Modern architecture all of the world kind of starts looking the same and it's not adapting to actually local weather and Conditions anyway, I'm getting distracted You know same thing That's how Conventionally jewelry look looks like and keeps looking like and It's just had more goals at that Things, you know, these are broaches like my aunties would wear and I I found broken ones and just replaced Some balls cast some gold where the pearls are missing that's kind of Fixing repairing them. These are not you know, they've been fashion brass cheap things But I they they meant something to People I was even making cufflinks and tie pins back then Approach and that was one thing at the academy with her study with Herman Junger You almost had to gain a brooch license like when people were making a brooch You had to look and only if he said, you know, that's good enough You were allowed to put a pin in the back and and the pin had to be you know Really, you've got to find out the right solution. So these brooches were designed. I got the pin first and kind of the pin Designed what's coming out in the brooch Double loop Just what are the what the pin bags? These are just conventional hobby shop pin bags what they offered me One of the first pieces casting just stones rubies in into place You know industry does cast stones into place as well. This is not something new. It's just they do it a bit more properly than me I like the moment of things getting out of control. So, you know when those classic rings just develop their own life or From the process what's sticking out where the diamonds are set in is actually just brew where this ring is cast so Just celebrating something. That's actually just a technical piece This is yeah kind of Fridge pavé and My lazy pavé, which I think are very popular It's some stone setting is another thing I learned stone setting, you know intensely at school and it's it's it's hard It's labor intense and it took me a long time. Look me ten years to come back to it Free enough to use it in my own way You know How to apply it so that I that it it's mine It became my technique before it was something I learned it's a by instruction, but this I I owned it then Sorry some slides are not that great, but this is you know a whole diamond extra finger This is just It's a piece about wasting time it's Passing time this is when my son Max was born when he was a baby He wasn't a good sleeper So you'd like to be carried around and as soon as you sit down and don't move people start to cry And so I took him to the workshop and when I was around my front I was I could sit when I was setting stones. There was enough movement that he could go to sleep So I just had that sheet I just filled the sheet of silver full of all little ruby sapphires emeralds that I had and so You know to keep him asleep The niece has another ring of that series. I Couldn't do that again That's the little teddy bear toy from my aunties They just keep fixing the dogs pulling it apart and they keep fixing it But you know, they wouldn't really like my Rings, but you know, they're doing the same thing In I think it was 97 I was invited as jeweler Artist-in-residence kind of to airford a town in the former East sitting in the valley and And I I Had to come up with a project and I said well, I wasn't quite sure what I'm doing So I said okay, I'm gonna look for gold Metaphorical but actually in the local natural history museum There was a book about about gold prospecting in the medieval times And there were maps in the books and they tried to find those places in the maps again and got myself some equipment and started digging there and washing for you know hours and days and weeks and This is an example of Piece of a trophy that one of the emperors of that area had made of his own gold But it took I think 50 workers a year to find enough gold So even back then there wasn't there wasn't that much gold But that's the piece of gold I found And you know the others I was as happy I was incredible because I It's a real great in spirit experience for every jeweler go out and go gold prospecting because it makes you aware how special That material actually is because it pop if you if there's gold at you You'll see very conceptual piece the pin is out of white gold and you know white goes the most refined from furthest From nature possible from gold, but you know that the pin is much more valued As material value than my little gold nugget, but my little gold nugget is everything to me Just you know jewelry Another use of a safety pin how you know kind of safety pin can be a piece of jewelry What happens it what the context does? To a piece of jewelry how a piece of jewelry become a whole symbol for a whole culture Jewelry isn't applied art, you know, it's when the person and the jewelry come together It's amazing Yeah, this is just not celebrating as much craftsmanship and you know as the pieces before It's like my version of the gold, you know must have had enough being shaped Over-century, so it's just like 300 gram of fine gold running down Alexis chest one of my first solo shows is 96 or something I just put all my rings in one showcase like it's the cut out like almost like of a piece of metal That's my first Museum Exhibition I thought wow wow now, you know, I've made it This is the new museum in Nuremberg, you know as a jeweler to make it into the holy halls and then this was the opening That's all the people that were there And and I know all of them So yeah That's another Yeah museum show up when I got Franco van den Bosch prize in The state of the museum in van den Bosch there were there were a few more people But always it comes down to the individuals through you reach you meet you make contact This guy Andy limb. He's a book publisher. He I published those books With him and he got a real fan He didn't know this jewelry exists. He got a real fan of it and published a huge Compendium some of you In here probably involved and seen it and this is the book printer, you know He got a ring for his partner and meet who is a bowmaker Because Andy limb collects violin bows. So and you meet those specialists and those specialists They could actually totally connect to this world and and that's been always amazing too. Yeah Get people new people involved Yeah, this is some of the some of the mad book Andy publishes This is a book of 4,000 drawings of an artist friend of ours and then you know, he asked me to make a handle That is totally not usable But you know, this is still I was still after my studies making stuff I mean 25 years ago, you know without friends like my friend who was an architect who had a you know stable job who when Money was needed. He would buy something or Lore a good friend who's really one person who's just not shy and wearing something extra again and just having you know enjoying this So those been really beautiful important people once I sent some stones to get holes cut through and Because I needed the stones with the holes and the stone cutter sent me back all the The cores that he drilled out. I didn't expect them. So Actually, all the all the precious stones sticking out but been the leftovers, but actually that was the most exciting bit of the whole project You've seen those those piles of stones Letting the stone just built an own shape and you know not using stones just as a decoration point on a piece of jewelry I Get pushed for five minutes. I've raced through I'll flick quickly Take one carrot of diamonds stuck on a wedding ring those rings this interesting a Diamond Company Hilton From South Africa. He saw those rings and he wanted to design a new contemporary line with Diamonds and he you know, he's producing Tiffany diamonds Sure, you know things that never could put my hand on before and we designed a group of work that was presented in come the gas stores in Tokyo, I think also in New York That was you know, I love solitaire rings. That was One One of those solitaire rings, you know, this is the same thing a diamond ring I like coming back to those classics in jewelry, you know Everybody if I say solitaire ring you have a Picture, but I like I'd like to offer a new Version today a new what how can it look today? another Part of my practice is now and then I do workshops Teach workshop, which is actually quite helpful because usually I'm in my studio just making stuff And I don't have to explain things to myself or talk to myself So this is actually quite helpful sometimes that I you know find words for what I actually do this was yeah, when Jeannie when Entered with Francis the rings entered your world. So this is a sculpture from Francis You've Richard a sloth and that sloth is wearing my jewelry and it's very So it's it's not that great, but this is how yeah our world's connected and Jeannie Obviously discovered those rings and it's funny the sloth. It's been there's another sloth who went through Been sold and to another auction and every time it comes up. It has less rings. I Like those collaborations with Francis. You've Richard. This is just That was that that's a long time ago in my workshop, but it always looks kind of similar It's full of things. I never come to an empty workshop. There's lots of things just waiting To be made and to be finished and to be taken on so I once I started this process a long time ago and it just keeps me, you know There's always something sometimes it's quick like this, you know, it's spontaneous. I like working with wax I sometimes can be quick and I know oh, this is good. That's finished and ready to cast Sometimes things sit there for years. Some I have some waxes sitting 15-20 years there and waiting to be a pace Ruby rings I see no more time sign coming up. Oh Yeah, sometimes, you know Ruby rings some too simple one is quite come back to Most convincing is a kind of raw Ruby dancing Ruby Raw diamond. I'd like same thing raw diamond Everybody knows diamond, but you know The raw form is if you see it you'll get that it's a special thing Solitaire rings, you know Real solid here. This is just a rock. This is yeah Like conceptual the most precious bit about it's a diamond with holes Wasn't easy to find somebody To put that hole in that diamond and it's not cheap either So actually, you know, the most expensive bit is the bit that's missing. You can just take them for a wonder Solitaire ring, you know, how do you set a stone? That's quite Obvious and you know You're as a jeweler. It's nice. Sometimes I get images like that sent in an email, you know You're not an undertaker or dentist People are really happy that was Daniel gave his partner that as an engagement ring after 20 years. And so, you know, it's really nice. It's a nice relationships. You You form It's me even the sheep are Bejeweled in New Zealand where I lived since 10 years now up back to the cow. I still like, you know, there's part of Making jewelry as a jeweler people come and everybody has like jewelry inherited and Once the woman came to me gave me all her old drinks and said, oh, can you turn this into something a new ring? And you know, I just took it all out and piled it all And yeah, but this is from a ring from serious cause seven deadly sins. This was greed This was idle kind It's funny. I used to For a long time try to get rings into places and then it's sometimes the rings take actually me to places and Sometimes you get, you know, they make up those funny. I just thought it was a weird invite But this is actually one person With she she owns all those rings. This is, you know So nice This is probably the heaviest ring I I've made is like two kilo On my finger. I had to go at some signet rings lately. I hope you're all right I always made a series of ring abusing my colleagues This is Otto Stoff. He was my professor also and Rotman sucks at an opening at an opening at his house. I Could sell that three times. I couldn't it's just one presentation. We're like, oh Ring sitting on that Skeleton, I don't know in German And that's my auntie Annie. Thank you Thank you Carl. I'm so grateful to be on the stage with two people. I admire so much and Hearing you walk through I'm meant to put this the next thing on The narrative of your life and work has been incredible I wanted to read a quote to you your own quote I hope you don't mind which was included in the retrospective at your gallery The ring is desperate desperate to find a finger Desperate to tell you I love you. I'm beautiful. I'm rich. I'm cool I hate you. I come from Ireland or Austria I want more. I have enough. I'm married. I'm funny. I'm scary Stupid important. I can't help you. I am When and why did you start focusing on rings? Pretty long time ago, but it just naturally evolved there was not I couldn't It wasn't a decision I made, you know, now I made rings. It just evolved into that being my favorite medium and favorite Volume to work with and also just trying it on I've been wearing them all so, you know I I like that back and I can't tell much better if it rings good than if earrings are good So We always say that You you make rings for the wearer and in fact when we wear our jewelry the only jewelry we can actually see is the rings on our fingers and That's something very special that you When you when you wear earrings you wear them usually for the enjoyment of others and it's a kind of gift to other people And when you put on a necklace it gives you a certain kind of carriage but a ring is is this wonderful intimate experience that you have all all the time and So that's it's it's kind of a gift and in fact most of the rings do come in coral size Really big and and we're really grateful that that Carl also has collaborations with other jewelers And we have a jeweler in New York who comes in But the rings come in coral size and more than just a literal size also because the rings are telling your story and they're They're in a way expressing Your pleasure your pain fantasy And so they're also for you. Yeah Sure, you don't want to know No, but I mean, you know, I can pick some and and can identify but they you know, I speak in rings That's me What's on the table there and but I don't want you don't have to know It's open. It's meant, you know, you can interpret it your way. I don't have to unload my Yeah, you know My life on to you. There was something that happened last night that was was pretty interesting that tells two stories one was your story Collector came in to choose a ring for his wife who he had been in a very big fight with and He went down the line and I said, oh beautiful for her and instead he chose the ring with all the screws and You know, it was it was really the most violent ring there and I said you clearly don't want to make up with your wife and And Carl looked at it and said, oh I made that ring when I was building my studio and you could feel all the work of your studio in that one ring the frustration and and all the tools that it takes and the time and And so off he went with with that ring to make up with his wife And so I love how the rings do tell these stories that we make them our own as well Yeah, and and you're also saying genie that the ring transforms aware. Oh, absolutely You know, it bewitches us In a certain way and and also each ring really does find their own Person and that's why I always really encourage people to pick them up and try them on and see what suits them Because different and also what suits you changes through time as well I mean that that's also I I like the term applied art, you know, I think that's what it is It doesn't it's not a minor thing. It's it's when the thing is applied It's actually it's final destination and that's when it proves how good it is and and these are great moments when When they happen and I think it's a very good prescription Yeah, what I do. Yeah, in fact, I you know on a personal level One of the rings that you showed was that raw diamond ring Which I actually asked you to make me a raw diamond ring because all of a sudden I started to look at my own wedding ring Years later and and I was uncomfortable wearing it and I thought why am I still wearing this with this, you know emerald cut diamond. I you know, it doesn't feel like me anymore and the minute I put on the raw diamond to kind of counterbalance my other one I Kind of became alive again. And so I you know that that I was really great performed So I still wear now a different raw diamond from you Every day because that one's too big But that sense of connection with the where I think is quite important, you know you are putting a very specific story in each unique ring and When people are approaching your work in a way, they're reading what you're putting into it but also, you know in a way projecting their own desires and fantasies and interests and curiosity onto this this particular object But you are also Very connected to your work. I have one of your rings Which is the KF Carl's initials And he did not know before a couple of days ago that I had this ring and I've never seen Such pleasure on someone's face to be reunited with his ring Which I never thought he was going to see I never think anybody will buy my initials But it's a perfect You know, it's it's a thing. It's something I had to make But and it's I mean, it's great that I mean This almost felt unsellable for me. Here we go It's so fitting That a curator, I know super fan clearly, but should be it makes perfect sense to me Yeah, and that's that's why it, you know, the rings find the right finger. Yeah, the right person. Yeah And so many people also, you know, see what they want to see in the ring and this one in particular It's initials, but it's an abstraction in most cases to people and they don't see your initials You know and the those hidden values Are so integral to your work, right because you're playing with ideas of beauty and of value And do you think that's a responsibility of a jeweler or of jewelry to critique society today? I wouldn't make it a rule if you feel like it. Yes, absolutely. You shouldn't I think it's important, but I wouldn't you know It's also all right if jewelry is just beautiful There's a reason for that too I mean you try and make everything ugly as well Well, sure, I've got a challenge. I mean it is As I say I I want to make it my what can I say It's got to be my my thing to say That's why you're looking you're looking for this new space. So what can you say or what do I have to add to Everything that's out there. Well, in fact, when I look at the the signature ring, I think You know called her for many years. That's what he did. He made he made You know all of his friends signatures and in fact, you don't make rings For other people necessarily you make them for yourself first Yeah, I do a look for myself You started to talk a little bit about Your influences and where you source materials and unorthodox places And I was hoping you could tell us a little bit more about your process How much is planned out? How much of it is intuitive? How much your local environment influences you? I I thought I did that No, I mean it's it's It's an open range I I work very intuitively but sometimes, you know, as my brain I have ideas too and then I process ideas but I think the most honest truthful things are when I when The things are just in front of me And I start making that's when things happen In thinking kicks in and but that's where I'm most comfortable When there are no expectations, yeah, but it can go anywhere, you know, but this is I need that that's what I I need I Sometimes I go to the workshop with an idea, but it's Yeah, that's all right but The comfortable areas is just me and the work in front of me and We go from there and wherever it takes me So we've collaborated on many shows together now and one of the Great ways of that we work together is in the presentation And in the actual display and what you're seeing here a few of them are Some of our Our displays and so I thought maybe you could tell us a little bit about the plasticine and how you Came to just some of the the kind of tricks of showing your jewelry Yeah it's Things that also come kind of Naturally close sometimes, you know, I use plasticines. I used the first time Use plasticine was just for when you do casting you make your little base out of plasticine stick your wax in and You stick your wax ring in it and it's just like oh, it's mounted there and that's That's how it then at one stage it's ended up. Oh, I could use that for presentation And so practical because you can just stand up your rings and you know, it's so model of Modular So it has been growing and I don't lose interest in it. It just keeps I can I can just always take it further and Reinvent it in every space, you know Adapt it Like with it with you or with I mean with the paper. It's just it's nice to find Simple solutions To because you have I mean the jewelry is usually Very small. It's rings. So, you know in an art. I had experience in art galleries where I show work Then people start standing three meters away with a glass of wine looking at a wall where there's like objects like this So that's a great thing with genie because you you're close. You have this and you know this intimate relationship that you you are close to the jewelry and and it I like to transport it and you can come close to it and you know Get near it and that's a that's important thing that intimacy of jewelry. You gotta touch it. You have to touch it I remember actually the first time I visited a jeweler and They poured into my hand from a little envelope of um, you know, they forgot their envelope and they poured in my hand the diamonds And they said you have to pick them up and feel them and and you know, it was it was so It was so physical and And your work is so physical when you pick them up their your fingerprints are in them and uh, and that's something that When people do work with me I kind of insist upon and so when I see a visitor kind of looking far away I said pick it up, you know, I pick one up put it into their hands. It's really important And it's a it's an important interaction and we don't get that So much in art We we do though in sculpture and in bronzes and that's you know, my practice comes out of showing art And one of the things that that I've always done in my practice is I've always taken pedestals off You know, I hate things in betrines. I um, I try and bring bring works as close as possible to the viewer and And kind of this sense of preciousness or this distance. We really do try and break that And do you notice a different audience for Carl's work in comparison to When you have an art exhibition well now, um Over, you know, we've we've been showing together for over the year. So Carl has all kinds of followers. Um, you know, certainly this this room is amazing Many of whom I probably don't know And they you come out of the jewelry world Mostly my the you know people who I work with come out of the art world And so they come to me for art and then they discover Something else and so that's part of my practice is to to show other other disciplines that I believe and practices that are also In the category of art for myself And nyc jewelry week it was designed with the intention of trying to broaden the audience For jewelry and also to create connections in between Different areas of jewelry and you know, Carl you're showing your work all over the world and traveling I mean, do you notice that there is a shifting and understanding or appreciation for the type of work you're making? I think I'm lucky with having these opportunities to come meet me and you know, there is definitely a different audience from the jewelry gallery audience I Know and these are great moments and great moments to see that people Can engage in how they and how they're surprised They're amazing surprise when they because they haven't known this existed and and how they just Can actually adapt it and this is a it is a great moment and I don't too often witness them because I'm not usually Most of I'm not there in the rings Handled over but it's it's this is great too. You know, it's wonderful to see and to see when they Basically you're killing all conventional jewelry when somebody starts putting on your rings. It's it's really true I think we've we've had a lot of people who who came in wearing one kind of jewelry and go out Wearing yours and they never stop and that's why you have Women sending you pictures and men too with you know, but their hands completely covered in your rings over the years But we do we have people who come And kind of take a pilgrimage to to pick out their new carl fish ring beautiful Well, we have an audience here Maybe of some people who are discovering carl's work for the first time Um, and definitely some old friends, but we would love to open up to questions if anyone Has something to ask carl Kara's going to pass around a mic. Please raise your hand Hi You said that you usually work with just like the material in front of you and go from there But how do you work when you collaborate? Like how does that process go When I There's different ways sometimes it's francis uberchin and martino gampa. We just bring out We just all bring our stuff and then you know, we'll let me make an exhibition. We put things in a room And and the very nice thing is you know, martino coming from the design world France is coming from the art world and i'm You can say craft world, but it's it's totally even value for us There's no, you know, it's it's such a fun play. It's it's just fantastic But also sometimes we we work together. We had Residences or three of us together and we all because we all like making and we all pretty much start The same thing we start find material and then make stuff together and it happened, you know But materials mixed In in each other's work and these are really wonderful collaborations As one example of them. Yeah The sonographies that you create for your work are so Particularly special and evocative and I think are one of the ways that people Feel as though they can approach your work. Have you ever thought about scaling up? And playing around with design furniture lighting architecture Oh, yeah, totally. Um Well, I you know That di why my auntie's di why mentality? You know when I need a chair For the barbecue tonight and at home in new zealand. I'll just I make it up but you know, it's It's not it's not meant to be I make it for myself when I'll I'll do things because you know, I'd like making anything I would love to build a house and just so far it's just been renovating but you know Yeah, I'd love to see those barbecue chairs I'd love to see those barbecue chairs So shitty Hi, thank you very much Uh, so in your work you work with both, um, like precious stones such as rubies and sapphires But also synthetic stones such as cubic zarkonia. Um, which ones are your favorite the synthetic or the precious stones? I this there's no favorite. I mean, I I think that's um That's important for me that they the There's like no favorites, you know, I can I pick up pebbles from the beach. I I I buy diamonds I They come from all Different ranges from all different places, but there's no hierarchy in it. I mean The stones, right? It's my favorite when it fits the thing when when when the rings good then That's the one but it's not it's very democratic those materials And that's just favor them by intuitive approach How frequently do you destroy an in-process ring and start from scratch? Oh, I once did that and I hate it that I didn't So there's boxes with lots of things sitting there and now I I Think I really only once did it and now I'm I'm I'm a very annoyed at myself That I didn't Because it's nice if you can it's the great thing. It's small. You don't have so much storage problems and Yeah, it's true Even when you travel to show it's very convenient little boxes in the mail sometimes But yeah, no often I as I say with the waxes, you know, some things I make quick I know they're good, but sometimes I'm I don't know right away and I can't read them yet and they Sometimes they take time for me to understand what I actually did at that moment and this can take a long time So there's something something I you know, I did it So sometimes you'll put a work away and wait and then bring it out again. They can be away for a long long time Some haven't made Haven't made it out of the drawer I When I saw the the piece that you showed with the plate with the plate metal plate and all these like Little stones, right when you were You know, yeah, yeah with the with the young child I realized how much your work is similar to Lisa Walker's work in her way of Like it was just really touching to me like the way she responds In her art and I was in it was like, oh my god, they're exactly the same but in different Could you tell a little bit about the like artistic relationship and influences between the two of you as as artists as partners and Maybe some I don't know how how does it work? It works well It's really good No, it's uh, I think that's pretty amazing. We're very lucky that we actually so Innovate close but innovate also so far apart in how our work looks You know, it's very different forms. It finds and It's sometimes we laugh When things Things cross over, you know, there might appear some praying hands or at some stage He and These things happen quite naturally, you know, but if you have the same gel you're exposed to them So no, it's it's a very good, but we keep it very separate We don't work in one room together the biggest insulation actually is between our two studios just Not to disturb each other we go to work separately and We don't often sometimes only The other just last month we were Lisa had a show in London and then I had a show in in munich and we sometimes Haven't seen each other's works until we go to each other's shows So it's like, oh, I didn't see it When did you make that? What does your packaging look like? Packaging for jewelry. Yeah, how you go with so long this Made some up It's really good, but I'm sure everyone wants to wear the rings out Yes, people never take the boxes. In fact, I noticed we we still have a big stack of boxes And we made beautiful boxes. Yeah packaging not needed Yeah, no, usually I'm not Usually it's not my uh, I mean packaging when a ship rings. Yes, I put lots of tissue paper And big boxes Yeah, I'm curious to know how many people here have a piece of carlfridge jewelry And are wearing it tonight. Okay, so everyone look at each other's fingers as you mingle After the talk Well, thank you all so much for coming tonight. Thank you carl. Thank you very much. Thank you genie