LEAVES & LOVE Jewelry Exhibition at the Winter Garden of Helsinki 20.-25.9.2022
Astari G. Swatantri with ‘Garden Tea Time’
Meira Rauta with ‘Urban – Wild’
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Once again, we got this wonderful opportunity to exhibit our jewelry at the Winter Garden, or Talvipuutarha, of Helsinki. Towards the end of September, autumn season has started, and during the exhibition week the weather had been so beautiful, with the sun shining through puffy clouds, reaching trees rapidly turning into shades of yellow, orange and red.
Inside the glass structure, the garden was adorned with atmospheric fall season theme decorations. You can see some from the pictures here, lovely pumpkins between exotic plants and flower arrangements in bold colors.
In the Cactus Room, where Leaves & Love Jewelry Exhibition took place, different flowers were blooming, including one stalk of the orchid Lumikuningatar and succulent Valkotupsukki. It’s the first time they bloomed during our exhibition time, so it was very special!
This time, my exhibition theme was ‘Garden Tea Time’. It was about playful jewelry that were inspired by gardens, tea, and magical moments. I displayed new and earlier works in silver, all made from Art Clay Silver, silver clay which is made from 100% recycled silver. Most of my jewelry were revolving around the tea world, namely my silver jewelry teapots and teacups, as well as other objects connected to these. This year, each of us also created a piece that was inspired by a plant chosen by the team members of Helsinki Winter Garden.
In this post I’ll go through my displays, and next time I hope to write more about the pieces.
‘Camellia‘
This year, the team members of the Winter Garden kindly chose a few plants from the garden’s collection for us to use as a source of inspiration for one of our exhibition pieces. From the list, I chose Camellia japonica. I’d describe it as sweet yet strong (just how I describe my jewelry). The Camellia tree at the Winter Garden of Helsinki has in fact reached more than 100 years old! Another reason for my choice, of course, is because Camellia japonica is related to Camellia sinensis, which is the tea plant. I created a new set of Camellia-themed pendant and earrings, inspired by my ‘Le Camélia’ piece from 2020. Together with it, I also displayed the ‘Sweet-tea Set Camellia’ which I created and exhibited in 2020.
‘Sweet-Tea Pot & Cup – Nr. 1/ The First one‘
I displayed here my very first silver jewelry teapot and teacup. I also included the story of how I got into making my first teapot and teacup. To accompany the set was a collection of tiny silver cup pendants.
‘The Tea Party‘
In this display, I showed my silver jewelry teapot, teacup, some plates as well as frames. The teapot and teacup ‘Forever It Shall Bee’ took part at last year Leaves & Love exhibition under my theme ‘Honey’. Some pieces were from 2020 and the rest were made this year, such as the frames. The square and circle pendants framed my mini watercolor paintings (about 2x2cm or less than 1×1″) with the scenery of the Helsinki Winter Garden from a couple of my painting visits this summer.
‘The Garden‘
In this display, I showed ‘The Winter Garden’, a set of 3 pendants that I created in 2015 and were inspired by the very Winter Garden of Helsinki. We have been keen visitors of The Winter Garden since many years ago, and often arrange meetings at the garden, especially during the winter time when we definitely need some green therapy! Along with the pendants, was the ‘Sweet-tea Sunny Garden Set’ that was featured in Leaves & Love poster this year.
‘Sweet Moments‘
Last but not least, what about some sweets for the teatime? In this display, I showed a couple of ‘candies’ from my Award Winning piece ‘Sweet Moments’, which was awarded a Semi Grand Prix at Silver Accessories Contest 2021 and exhibited in Tokyo, Japan, last winter.
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I’ll continue to post about my Leaves & Love Jewelry Exhibition 2022 pieces here on my blog, it might be a bit random posting time, however please do sign up to my newsletter if you’d like to get notification for a new post.
We would like to express our gratitude to all guests and visitors of Leaves & Love 2022, at Helsinki Winter Garden and online through our posts and stories. A special thank you to Helsinki Winter Garden team members for the opportunity to exhibit our jewelry once more in the amazingly beautiful space. We are truly grateful for everyone’s support. Hope to see you again next time! Astari & Meira – Astari G. Swatantri & Meira Rauta
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