No boredom, only inspiration – an interview with Jan Suchodolski

By Anna Sado

His greatest passion is creating jewellery – so great that wanting to stay in the profession at all costs, he found a niche in the jewellery market, where he has been successfully working for a decade now. The jewellery he has been making for more than 40 years and the photographs he has been taking for over the last four years have earned him the Badge of Honour for Merits to Warsaw.

When I turn up at the studio, Jan is in the process of... editing the text of a book.

Can you write too?

That’s what they say. That’s why I was given this book to edit.

A man of many talents. Do you have any other?

It looks like I take great pictures (laughs). I still make jewellery, but it’s different now. 10 years ago, together with Marcin Gronkowski, we took up making wedding rings. In our studio and under our watchful eye, the bride and groom can participate in the creation of their wedding rings or they can commission us to make them in accordance with their own wishes. The birth of the concept Your wedding rings are up to you was the result of the crisis in the market of goldsmithery and art more than a decade ago, which caught up with us relatively early compared to other fellow goldsmiths. At that time, we were faced with a choice: either change profession or look for a niche in the profession we do, know and like. This year, we are celebrating the 10th anniversary of ‘rings’...

This ring-making niche is pretty large, many good goldsmiths have found their way into it.

That’s true, the subject has also been tackled by other designers and they are doing really well. An approach with an artistic flair and a good workshop, in the sense of classic jewellery work, gives us a certain edge over chain jewellery stores. Although we are actually no competition – the big companies probably don’t even notice our existence.

Do customers notice the difference between rings made by you and those from a retail chain?

Of course, otherwise they would be chain customers and not ours. First of all, they appreciate the handiwork, which you can see. With us, you can perhaps see it even more, because I simply don’t like jewellery that looks like it was made with a ruler. I definitely prefer it when there is a trace of human handiwork, a certain controlled imprecision, maybe even carelessness, which gives the final effect that is unique to each piece. Customers also appreciate the possibility to make their wedding rings from entrusted gold. When they turn up with old jewellery, I persuade them not to remelt it, but to refresh or adjust the size. Recently, a couple came in with their grandparents’ rings, with the wedding date engraved inside.

I couldn’t help but offer to engrave their wedding date next to the original one, without remelting. I imagined that their children would do the same – isn’t that a beautiful way to preserve family jewellery? I have another story of this kind: a couple came to remake their grandparents’ jewellery and the girl cried as she watched the gold rings melt away. She must have had a very close emotional connection to them... She later thanked us that she got new rings made of exactly the same gold. For many customers, this guarantee of reworking the material they brought in is of great importance.

Do you focus only on rings now, or do you still happen to design and make other jewellery?

There are still a few ladies walking around who came to love and still love my style, so I keep making that jewellery of mine. But not much beyond what someone wants to order. Sometimes I get the urge to see if I find myself in the prevailing minimalist trend... As you know, it’s totally far from my aesthetic feeling – some of my ball necklaces could weigh up to 200 grams (laughs). Recently, I have even started making rings, which is also completely uncharacteristic of me, as this form has always been too small for me to express myself. Meanwhile, to my surprise, they have received a positive response. I have to admit that they are even cool, although so minimal (laughs).

Balls are characteristic of you. What were the origins of their worldwide success?

In the beginning of the business in the early 1990s, the days of trading on camp-beds and odd business deals, I was commissioned by two businessmen who had some gold to work with to make earrings: smaller and larger balls on a stick. Then polished silver balls took their place. The process of soldering the two halves of the ball together, as we all know, was frequently a matter of success. Such shapeless and somewhat freakish balls were thrown into a container of material for remelting. When I had collected quite a few of them, it occurred to me that they could make a pretty cool bracelet. I brushed them, sanded them, oxidised them, added a few copper balls and that’s how the first bracelet was made. In no time at all, it found a delighted client who provided me with further orders. And then a real craze took over for the balls (laughs). So I decided to go with the punch and dared to make bead necklaces – the same thing! I created bead jewellery in different sizes, finishes or colours. I once counted that if these necklaces and bracelets were joined together, it would come out in a straight line of... several kilometres of these balls (laughs). Those were beautiful times... I remember once before Christmas I put five necklaces in the Milano Gallery in Warsaw and before I got home I already had a phone call saying I should bring another one. It was the same in the galleries in Krakow – I would deliver th necklaces, go to lunch nearby, and when I came back they had already been sold, so I collected the money and went back to Warsaw.

You totally hit the trend.

Both yes and no. In the second half of the 1980s, when I was still mastering the art of goldsmithing in Jaroslaw Westermark’s studio, blown and highly polished jewellery reigned supreme. I wasn’t able to do that kind of thing. Firstly because it was completely not my aesthetic, but also because I disliked polishing silver terribly. So I started looking for other possibilities and immediately loved playing with different shades of oxidation, textures, and mattes. And that appealed to the recipients too. From today’s perspective, I think that this jewellery of mine attracted attention because it was completely different from all those polished silver pieces, and that I nevertheless contributed a little to changing the trend. I think I intuitively sensed the wind of change as the following years were a real revolution. Jewellery by Polish designers and visual artists, which was – and still is – very good in terms of design and much cheaper than on European markets, started to attract contractors from Germany and other European countries. The revolution lasted for a good few years, until trends changed and we were forced to raise prices because it was simply no longer possible to produce so cheaply. Nowadays, it is very difficult to stay in the art jewellery market, so I am cheering my colleagues on who are still succeeding.

Between the crisis and the period of rings, you also created the first online jewellery gallery. I remember that when I wanted to find out what was new on the market, I would go to Zero925 Gallery – the latest news was always there.

The gallery operated for 2 years, but as a result of pro-environmental ostracism and unfair competition from stationary shops and galleries, it closed down. The artists who worked with me were given an ultimatum: either sell at my place or in those galleries. I remember that one well-known gallerist thought I was stupid, because you can’t sell jewellery online. And she kicked me out of her gallery. So at some point I gave up. I tried my luck at running a stationary gallery in Warsaw, but after a short time, I gave up, too. At the moment I came up with the idea for wedding rings.

And now you took over photography. Where did the interest come from?

When the theme of weddings rings emerged, I moved from Brwinow to Warsaw. As I hate driving in the city by car, I walk or cycle. And if you’ve been walking for an hour from home to the studio and back for four years, you get a bit bored, look around more and notice things. And when you see them, you think about them, you comment on them, and want to keep those fleeting impressions for longer, so you take out your phone, you capture it, start to process it, then you upload it to Instagram or Facebook, where you get a delightful response. Then people start liking the photos, commenting on them, and someone even offers to put them on display. I felt like a bit of an intruder, trespassing on an area that wasn’t my own – nowadays everyone has a phone and everyone thinks they can take a

picture. Just like everyone thinks they can buy beads at Empik and become a super jewellery designer. With this in mind, I felt confused that I was dealing with a field that I was completely unfamiliar with from a professional point of view. I do have a sense of aesthetics, colour, I can design, I can see a nice detail, I can also see the whole thing, but I have no idea about technique. This is why my exhibition +48 22.jpg, which one could see at the Milano Gallery run by Elzbieta Kochanek van Dijk, also had a subtitle: Photographic Notes from Warsaw. For me it is not photography, rather a photographic-graphic game. These photos are not good looking from a technical perspective – they are often overexposed or blackened, bleached, sometimes deliberately, in the graphic software on the phone. I must honestly admit that I have been very pleased with the positive reactions to these 'notes' of mine. A little of this is also due to my illness – life is short, you have to make pleasures for yourself, and this exhibition is just such a pleasure. Particularly as I have had a positive response, with a few pieces of work already sold. By the way, the City Council of Warsaw awarded me the Badge of Honour for Merits to Warsaw, so I feel happy.

Congratulations once again. Was there a laudation? I’m curious, what exactly did you get the badge for?

For overall contribution. Also for the fact that I am a Warsaw goldsmith, so Warsaw has got some profits from me (laughs). When granting me this badge, the chairwoman of the presidium of the City Council reminded me that I did my military service at the National Museum in Warsaw, where I was a guard. For the first year, I guarded the Battle of Grunwald, and for the second year, I guarded the carps in the Royal Baths Park (Lazienki). So already then, as a young boy, I managed to make a contribution to the capital city of Warsaw (laughter). Let me just add that next to the Battle of Grunwald, the painting Battle of Somosierra by January Suchodolski, my great-greatgrandfather, was exposed. So I was still guarding the family legacy (laughs).

Is there perhaps an exhibition offered in line with this honorary title for you?

No, it’s an honorary title and that’s the end of it. I didn’t even get a discount on public transport, which I sometimes use when there’s a hailstorm and I can’t walk (laughs).

It’s a bit of a shame, it would be an opportunity for many people to get to know you, for others to see your jewellery again.

Anyone can see it in the collections of the Museum of Goldsmithing in Kazimierz, the Museum of Copper in Legnica, the Museum in Gliwice and in the private collection of contemporary jewellery of Magdalena Kwiatkiewicz. Several of my works are available for sale at Galeria Milano in Warsaw and Galeria Otwarta in Sandomierz. These are, incidentally, the last two stationary galleries with artistic jewellery still in operation. I framed the last two necklaces of large spheres I had left and gave them to my daughters. I don’t think there will ever be another opportunity to make such again...

Is there any other area which you would like to try your hand at?

For now, I’m filled with a small success in my photo show. What’s next? I don’t know, something will definitely pop into my head. Rings are a developing subject because they provide cool contact with cool young people, full of passion, with whom it is interesting to talk. There is no boredom, only inspiration. There is also motivation – although wedding rings are also an artistic activity, but, I make no secret of it, a certain deficit of creative activities has already appeared. So I will try to satisfy this deficit.

I wonder if you will forever be associated with the ball/bead? At one time you even had the nickname Kulkodolski (kulka: a ball in Polish) (laughs).

I probably will. But I hope also with squares and triangles, because brooches gilded in triangles and squares are, after all, the other significant segment of my artistic jewellery. I liked brooches because I could go wild making them. Even my smallest earrings were big too (laughs). As I said, the trends that have prevailed in jewellery in recent years are completely alien to me. What can I do about it? I guess it has to stay that way now.

Trends tend to come back, why not get another chance?

Maybe...? Who knows...? I have my ring history, I don’t have to think about whether this minimalism will past and baroque or rococo will appear in jewellery.

…and a bead (śmiech).

There is no chance that a bead will ever be eliminated from jewellery. Even if one form of it vanishes for a while, it comes back under another. If not silver balls, then at least pearls in round form. The bead will always live on. ■

This article was first published in www.amber.com.pl