Hedvig Westermark- SETTINGS & FINDINGS

SETTINGS & FINDINGS N.10 WITH HEDVIG WESTERMARK

SETTINGS & FINDINGS WITH Hedvig Westermark by matt lambert

"When I first moved to Stockholm I found myself getting off the subway early to walk half of my way home to catch some air, window shop and be around people on the street. There is a portion of Hornsgatan a primary street that can best be described for me as craft row. There are several craft collectives, galleries and shops within a few blocks that will greet you with anything handmade. In this small stretch of road one can find the studio and storefront of Hedvig Westermark. It became a habit to pop in whenever I happened to see her on the shop side having a break from diligently working at her jewelers bench. Our conversations would loose track of time and cover the many things including our relationship and feelings to jewelry, how we learn and speak about it and what motivates us as makers to work with ideas, concepts and formats of jewelry. I invited Hedvig to expand on some of our conversations and to extend those studio windows to you here. " -ml

"Maybe it can be explained with my seeking of balance…which i never will completely reach but the search takes me to places that I never can fore see neither plan for.
I just let it go and follow whatever the need of settings and the finds of materials takes me.

The left overs from the day jobs, little pieces, brokend things, and colours, that is a few of the things that get me started. I sort them, put them together, looking for what shapes, forms and colours can become a balanced, harmonic unit.
I need to find just one or two pieces that that work together and then it is like finishing a puzzle, only I have no idea how many pieces it takes to complete the picture.

The settings, in the meaning of setting the stones or other materials, just will be worked out along the way, when trying to figure this out I realise that there is absolutely no plan for anything as a contrarily to the day job that always is very planned, disciplinen and with no big surprises along the way to a finished piece of jewellery.
It all has to be kind of a surprise for me to end up as an interesting and good object, meaning the process is the complete opposite to the daily work with the studio jewellery that is my income which allow for my work with art jewellery objects to be more explorative and open.
The opposites makes my life balanced, or the moving back and forth through a center makes me keep my balance, like standing on one of those balance things at the gym, lika an up side down half sphere, you have to keep moving in order not to fall off….did that make sense?

Not many plans, it has to be lust driven
Rejected, left over, often not very fancy materials, materials that I never use on a daily basis
A vague picture of the result
A need to make something that has no receiver in mind
It is brooch

I have been thinking of this brooch making so much, for a while I felt kind of hopelessly stuck in that format, and I thought that I needed to change that wich of course got me even more stuck…
It took a few years for me to realise that I wasn’t stuck at all, I had just found exactly the right place to be…All other types of jewellery is depending on the body in one way or another, again, the daily task, it takes a finger, a wrist an ear or a neck, the brooch is not depending on my body, there is a piece of cloth in between the two of us, that makes us equal, a brooch is an independent object that can be worned but never right on the body.. the brooch is placed on the garment that i am inside of…does it make sense to you?
It makes us equal, like a unit and the needle is the only finding that i have to consider.
A brooch, when pinned on a pice of cloths, sticks out and ”comes first” I come ”last” and we, the brooch and i are both depending on the clothes, I can move us both around and the brooch can speak for us both, like I do the walking and the brooch do the talking and together we make a unit, hopefully balanced in the current situation.

Wearing a carefully selected brooch always make me feel more confident and secure.

If I could wear only one kind of jewellery for the rest of my life it would, of course be a brooch.
It took me some 30 years to put words at thees thoughts." Hedvig Westermark

Artist Hedvig Westermark

Picture Credits

List of photos

1. ”A perfect pair” Pearl,silver,gold, pyrite. From the series ”Collected and Sorted”” 2015

2. ”A small collection” Silver, gold, coral. pearl. From the series ”Collected and Sorted” 2015

3. ”Chosen Material Nr3” Silver,gold, pearl, plastic, rock chrystal, constructed emerald. 2019

4. ”Chosen Material Nr1” Silver, vintage button,Rock Chrystal, plastic, pearl. 2019

5: ”Chosen Material Nr5” Wood, gols leaf, silver. rose cut diamond, agate. 2019

6. ”Chosen Material Nr12” Silver, sapphire, black coral, aquamarine. 2021

7. ”Chosen Material Nr9” Wood, silver, glass, rock crystal. 2021

8. ”Chosen Material Nr13” Silver, rose cut diamonds, rock crystal, plexi glass. 2021

9. ”Chosen Material Nr11” Silver, plastic, rock crystal, vintage button. 2021

10. ”Chosen Material Nr.15” Guilded silver, peridot, amber, acrylic, prasiolite 2021

11. ”Chosen Material Nr10” Silver, gold, jesmonite, pearl. 2021

12. ”KLOTS” Wood, lacquer, gold leaf. silver. 2022
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SETTINGS & FINDINGS N.10 WITH HEDVIG WESTERMARK