Aficionados of face furniture, necklaces and rings alike will be sure to find something that tickles their fancy from Saskia Diez. Looking to dial up the drama with a bold, sculptured ear cuff? Check! Keen for a dainty piece to wear day in, day out? There’s plenty where that came from – and more besides.
Dreamt up in her Munich atelier and manifested in partnership with local artisans, Saskia’s elegant designs look to the realms of art and industrial design for inspiration, allowing us to experiment with new and numerous ways to accessorize all areas.
Satisfying our penchant for all-important adornings, Saskia invited us for a closer look at her design-led decor to recount the story behind her aesthetic.
What inspires you to create? Is it one particular thing or many factors that influence your work?
Dancing serves as a big inspiration for the new collection; you can see it through the movement and lightness of the pieces, and the way they’re entwined and tangled. They simply dance with you! During the autumn, while I was designing, I had St. Vincent’s latest album ‘Masseducation’ on repeat – I realise now that my jewellery really personifies her character. She’s an exact mix of very strong yet also very fragile, and you can see that in my work.
My friends are all creative forces – writers, architects, artists and musicians – so they’re a constant inspiration too, and I’m always uplifted by their energy.
If inspiration comes from everywhere, what does the creative process look like for you? How are your concepts born?
It’s a complete mix. I like to experiment and dabble with different designs to keep my work interesting – it’s a case of welcoming ideas when they come into my mind. The hardest part is sifting through them and working out whether one leads somewhere or not. Typically, I’ll run with a couple of ideas together, which I manage to shape into a collection.
My design process is very emotional and intimate, and the creations are really very dependent on my mood. They can be colourful and bold to reflect happiness, or they can be more fragile and delicate; when you’re creating a collection, you have to remember that you’re catering to a spectrum of different people, so designing in this style really works to my benefit in appealing to different personalities.
Run us through the materials you work with. Pearls seem to feature heavily!
I predominantly work with sterling silver; if I’m creating delicate gold pieces I’ll use 18 carat, but for those bolder looks I’ll start with sterling silver before plating it with 18-carat gold. I work with recycled materials, which is very common in jewellery. In terms of pearls, they’re synonymous with that word for me – it’s always satisfying to work on interpretations of what jewellery means on a personal level. Sadly, an effect of global warming is that the oceans are getting dirtier and increasing in temperature, which isn’t conducive to high-grade pearls. As such, I’ll generally opt for freshwater varieties. I don’t think people would be so aware of it, but the consequences of global warming are certainly evident for me in respect to sourcing.
Other than that, I try to keep things local – the company I source my gold and silver from is only two blocks away from me. I really value and respect the importance of knowing who I’m working with.
All imagery courtesy of Saskia Diez. Embrace minimalist cool; shop Saskia Diez here:
