The rock crystal used to make this brooch is colourless. However, the resin that holds together the singular gemstone pieces is coloured with different pigments, and so the brooch shimmers in a gradient from turquoise to raspberry.
It was a moment of disappointment that started off Julia Obermaier’s successful path in crafts. “Originally I intended to study interior design. But a professor told me that he could see my potential in fine arts than in interior design.” At first Julia was devastated, but then she started to research fine arts and stumbled across the craft of goldsmithing. It immediately sparked her interest. An internship with a goldsmith later, she signed up for professional training at the Staatliche Berufsfachschule für Glas und Schmuck in Kaufbeuren-Neugablonz, followed by a Bachelor of Fine Arts and a Master of Advanced Design. Julia's technical knowledge and inimitable feel for composition is manifest in her wearable small-scale sculptures. She was awarded with the Special Mention of the LOEWE Craft Prize in 2022.
Read the full interviewPhoto: ©Julia Obermaier
The rock crystal used to make this brooch is colourless. However, the resin that holds together the singular gemstone pieces is coloured with different pigments, and so the brooch shimmers in a gradient from turquoise to raspberry.
Photo: ©Julia Obermaier
This is a purple amethyst brooch. The gemstone pieces are assembled in a rectangular shape held together by pigmented resin, that partially amplifies the colour of the amethyst while preserving the translucency.
Photo: ©Julia Obermaier
This agate brooch is in variations of blue. Resin and gemstone are kept in the same colour. Only opacity variations give a clue as to which is the agathe and which is the resin.
Photo: ©Julia Obermaier
Here is a rhodonite brooch in light to very dark raspberry tones. The gemstones are fixed by a pigmented resin. Around a rectangular central plate smaller elements are assembled like a brick wall.
Photo: ©Julia Obermaier
This is a group of four brooches or wearable sculptures. The rock crystal itself is colourless and translucent. It is the pigmented resin that adds the colour. The pigments create gradients from light yellow to orange tones and intense red. The gemstones are assembled in geometric forms.