Beyond Jewellery

Martina Loncar
Designer

15 March 2022

I’m Martina Loncar (Tinka for my friends), I am from Ljubljana, Slovenia. After finishing my degree in art history and finishing goldsmiths school in Milan I move to Florence, the cradle for goldsmiths since the Renaissance. Not many know that great artists like Michelangelo, Leonardo and Verrocchio were also goldsmiths. Still nowadays this historic “hub for goldsmiths” has its advantages, so many artisans in one place—from leatherworkers to metalsmiths to weavers—means you can source any material or collaborative insight, which makes Florence a very comfortable place to work.

I started making jewelry when I was 16. I lost an earring, a gift from a dear friend, so I made a new pair. Those days I tried lots of materials like resin, old objects, candy wrappers, and leather, which I still use today together alongside precious metals and stones of all kinds,  from synthetic nano crystals to precious raw stones to meteorites. I like to play and experiment. As art historian I like to use the essential qualities of artistic styles to express myself and to underline my idea.

I understand jewellery as visual medium with a personal message. The meaning is fulfilled only when jewellery is being worn.

My passion is to find a form that combines concept, function and beauty. All my work is a result of personal experiences; 

My jewels reveal more of me than my words.

Through them I express my inner world full of opposing elements: order and craziness, sober beauty and subtle humoristic lightness, creepiness and hilarity.

I always try to be unafraid of injecting my personality into each new creation, nor pushing the boundaries with manipulation of materials.

Every piece has its own story, in each work you will find that child, from my early years, when I was playing with beads.