"A Ring is a Ring is a Ring ..."

In this project, 34 students from the Alchimia School of Contemporary Jewellery (Florence, Italy), the British Academy of Jewellery (London, UK) and the Edelstein-Campus Idar-Oberstein explored the traditional jewelry form of the finger ring and created their own interpretations of the shape. In the ERASMUS+ funded project, the students were able to learn about different approaches and teaching methods and benefit from the intercultural exchange both personally and artistically. The starting point was the "Gimmel Ring" exhibited at the V&A Museum in London. This consists of three connected rings - an ideal symbol for the project from three schools.

The event kicked off in Idar-Oberstein in January 2017. In a workshop lasting several days, the students got to know the topic "ring", the gemstone region around the campus, and of course each other. Between the classroom sessions, the students worked on their own projects, but kept exchanging ideas virtually. In June 2017, the participants met again in person, this time in Florence, to discuss the interim results and at the same time to plan the crowning finale of the project: the "99 rings" exhibition, which took place in September 2017 as part of the London Design Festival. For this, they not only had to develop a concept, but also photograph the artworks for the exhibition catalog.