Susanne Klemm, Frozen in Time

Creating collections around themes, using provocative names such as Amputation, Mutation and Massive Attack, jewelry designer Susanne Klemm's pieces are unique and thought-provoking.

Her style and ability to mix more mainstream jewelry makers' materials with those that are fresher and more unusual is part of her aesthetic.

"Susanne Klemm regards nature as her inexhaustible source of inspiration and is moved to intervene in the endless rhythm of growth and decay to add a touch of immortality to the happenings.

"The demiurge captures these moments using a fine plastic covering around objects such as fruit, twigs, flowers, freezing them in time and - paradoxically - thus bringing nature to full bloom. Susanne Klemm makes evanescence visible... Where does nature end - where does art begin? Or is the relationship the other way around? (From her web site.)

Klemm uses the material polyolefin in her Frozen collection. "Unpredictable happenings during the production process play an important role in the works, but at the same time they are carefully controlled with every detail, thus creating Klemm’s own world of nature." (From klimt02.net discussion of the artist's exhibition at Tokyo's gallery deux poissons.)

Polyolefin, a plastic resin, has probably been seen more widely as a component in such products such as tear-resistant mailers and scuba dive suits. Now Ms. Klemm is bringing the substance up-scale in her jewelry design. 

Susanne Klemm's pieces are often three-dimensional, sculptural as well as wearable art. They are often statement pieces, which may have both special meaning to the artist as well as to the woman who ultimately wears it.


Some of her jewelry includes the use of items as diverse as textiles, such as silk, and chewing gum.

In her earlier Tango line, a ring pair titled After Party + Betrayed feature silver paired with deep red balloons and a stark white candle. The rings are a fine example of art jewelry. 

"Like in a haiku, Japanese poetry of the 17th century, I express symbols of seasons, human affairs and flowers. They are a personal experience of moments in a simplified and minimalist shape, a thimble of emotions and tribute to the beauty of nature."

Susanne Klemm, January 2007

Ms. Klemm was a participant in Redlight Design Amsterdam, a project connecting the work of six international top jewelry designers with the Redlight area of Amsterdam.

Jewelry designers display their works in former prostitution establishments in the City of Amsterdam, Ymere and Droog Design. Every month Klemm presented new jewelry behind a window of a former brothel.

The pieces, Klemm has said, are inspired by the enviroment of the Red Light District in Amsterdam. At the end of the one-year-residence, September 2008 - August 2009, the entire collection will be presented.

It's definitely worth visiting her web site to see more of her work and to check out her Redlight Collection.

The project coincides with Redlight Fashion Amsterdam. In an effort to crack down on crime in the area, the city converted 16 buildings that used to house prostitutes in the its ancient red light district into studios for young fashion designers. The designers live rent-free in the studios for the first year.

Images from gallery deux poissons, Droog, Galerie Annick Zufferey and Galerie Ra, where Susanne Klemm's designs have been and may be seen.