I create jewelry from copper, brass, alpaca, silver and parts of old clocks, watches and other old jewelry. I might even use some lace and leather to create something new and beautiful from something old and abandoned.
This all started for me while traveling through New Zealand with my family in 2013. On the South Island, we visited the extraordinary town of Oamaru. This town is known for its Victorian themed historic district and its many arts and craft shops. Totally unlooked for we came across something called Steampunk HQ. This is an art gallery, dedicated to an industrial take on Steampunk, and uses darkened rooms with several fantastically crafted machinery. We spend a good part of the day in awe at all the contraptions, completely immersed in the post-apocalyptic, industrial moods the gallery was able to evoke.
Steampunk is a subgenre of science fiction or science fantasy that incorporates technology and aesthetic designs inspired by 19th-century industrial steam-powered machinery. Steampunk works are often set in in a fantasy world that employs steam power, or follow an alternative history of the 19th century’s British Victorian era or the American “Wild West”, in a post-apocalyptic future during which steam power has maintained mainstream usage, using futuristic inventions and machines or where actual machines (like computers) are often invented earlier than in reality. This genry also prefers metal over plastics.
Totally suprised and enthused after my visit of Steampunk HQ and all the little steampunk art galleries, I was determined to do something in the Steampunk genre when I returned to the Netherlands. I found out that Steampunk has been around in Europe for quite some time already, including a lot of devotees. See for example in Lincolnshire, England and in Nantes, France.
I started with taking a few courses of goldsmithing, rebuilding my attic into a workshop and started collecting materials like old clock-work, gears, springs etc. on flea markets and webshops.
So started my passion to make steampunk jewelry. To be able to do that with a high quality, I invested in professional equipment and enrolled in the renowned “Vakschool Schoonhoven” in 2015, the one trade-school in the Netherlands to study goldsmithing. I try to make jewelry in the steampunk style as much as possible, but if someone comes along with a nice assignment, I’ll jump on the chance as well!
I hope you like my work, go ahead and have a look around in my gallerie.