CLUSTER JEWELLERY SHOP

JOURNAL

THE EXHIBITORS

As the founding directors of K2 Jewellery School in central London, both Kelvin Birk and Katrin Spranger have an impressive repertoire of expertise to draw upon. They overlap in their creative outputs and their love of making, but their practices and journeys deviate greatly. It’s part of what makes the K2 Jewellery School the perfect balance of creative energy, practical techniques and business savvy, creating an environment that allows for exploration across the expanse of possibilities that jewellery making can offer. It's also why their contribution as jurors for the Cluster Jewellery Residency is so valuable, and why Cluster and K2 Jewellery School is a match made in heaven.

Kelvin Birk

Award-winning jeweller Kelvin Birk had an enviable assuredness about his career path from an early age. He knew since high school that jewellery was his calling, and he saw this path through to unbridled amounts of success. He graduated from goldsmithing and jewellery making at the Berufsfachschule fuer Glas und Schmuck before moving to London to pursue an MA in Silversmithing and Jewellery at the Sir John Cass Faculty of Art. London was the obvious choice for Kelvin at the time. His aspirations outgrew his hometown, and his London calling coincided with a cultural shift that cemented his desire to call the British capital his home.

“In the second or third year after I came here, Cool Britannia kicked in, with the Young British Artists, Alexander McQueen, Blur, union jacks everywhere,” says Kelvin. “This really became the place to be. It was good timing on my part, where it felt like creativity had reached a higher standard.”

More than two decades later, his choice to move to London still proves to be a good one, evinced by the successes of his jewellery making career and the founding of K2 Jewellery School with his colleague Katrin.

Many of Kelvin’s contemporary works showcase the destruction and reconstitution of precious gems or objects, a study into the nature of chaos and creation. His composite designs feature a flurry of colours and textures, integrated into single pieces with finesse and artistry. Notable in his archive is his Crushed collection, where precious metals are frosted with delicate sparkles of gems. His favourite of the pieces is the Meadow Brooch, a silver brooch featuring soldered “grass stems” covered in crushed quartz, faceted sapphires and garnets that reach out their spindly forms in a manner both alien and earthly.

Apart from technical skills, Kelvin is also an expert in the business aspects of jewellery making. Knowledgeable about the process of dealing with clients and custom orders, he teaches students how to build up sustainable businesses that allow creative freedom to blossom. His many years of teaching centres on both critical engagement with the techniques of jewellery making and practical advice on how to turn technical skills into a successful business.

Katrin Spranger

Katrin’s journey into jewellery making wasn’t as straightforward, and to this day her practice oscillates between jewellery design and art-making. After graduating as a goldsmith on the advice of practical parents, Katrin knew she wanted to produce art beyond the measures of functional jewellery. She worked as a jewellery designer for several years before leaving her hometown of Hamburg, Germany to complete an MFA in Jewellery Art at Konstfack University College of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm. It was here that Katrin found footing in the type of practice she had craved, where jewellery becomes the starting point for creative exploration. Encouraged to push the boundaries of what jewellery can be, this element of ambiguity and exploration remains in her works today.

Her practice sees performance and sculpture along with jewellery making, with her jewellery pieces taking on unconventional characteristics. Some of her pieces are interactive, whilst some might be edible. Others might be component pieces to larger artworks that take on a political stance, such as Best Before, which Katrin considers her strongest work to date. A speculative science fiction wherein crude oil is so exhausted as a natural resource that it is treated like a precious gem, adorning high-end jewellery, this work takes on a narrative form using the visual language of jewellery making.

“I am planning to continue with the project and hoping to take it to the next level. I want to research how I can transform the fragility into performance and mark-making,” says Katrin about the ways in which she turns her jewellery making practice into artistic pursuit.

With her practice being situated snugly between art and jewellery design, she has become an expert at grant applications, an important part of realising experimental works. Katrin is well-practised in acquiring funding in order to produce art pieces that fall outside the realm of functional jewellery, a skill she teaches her students in addition to broadening their creative horizons with unorthodox approaches to jewellery design.

The school and the facilities K2 Jewellery School, the namesake of which is derived from Katrin and Kelvin’s first names, offers facilities and mentorship that caters to all levels and interests. Those selected to partake in Cluster London’s residency programme will have the well-equipped studio at their disposal in addition to Katrin and Kelvin’s expertise. Depending on what the particular needs and interests of the artist-in-residence are, mentorship can cover all facets of technical knowledge, business skills, creative output and more. K2 establishes itself as a place of intellectual exchange, spurring on new ideas and providing an environment for inspiration to flourish. The school parallels Cluster London’s ethos of creative community building, sharing common goals that are strengthened by their partnership. “We really like what they do,” says Katrin about K2’s collaboration with Cluster.

“We find that just as much as we occupy a niche in supporting and educating creatives about artistic jewellery making, we think they do an amazing job in the crafts field. Their shows always have great artists, great people, and we really want to support that. We’re aligned with what they do.”