Bettina Speckner

"While creating her work, Bettina Speckner uses pearls, corals and diamonds as well as plain coloured stones, sometimes marked by small faults, which however endow them with traits of their own. Quite often the artist employs even seemingly banal but peculiar every-day items, forging the sublime and the profane with great creative strength into a new poetic harmony.In her work she is particularly fond of photographs. Sometimes they are old and show bygone places or people of former times, quite often however the jewelry­-artist uses photos she took herself of trunks, flowers, lonesome lanes or landscapes. To turn photos into gems, the motives are etched on small metal plates or burned on enamel. By this only they become part of an individual composition: precious metals, diamonds, coloured stones and objects found begin to lead lives of their own. Pat­terns and ornaments arise." - South Karelia Museum

To see more of her intriguing work go to her website.