One of the most timeless of all crafts has proved to be the art of designing and creating jewelry. Whether they be jewels adorning royalty, or even a safety-pin through your earlobe, how you choose to decorate your IRL avatar is informed by the approach the jeweler took to the piece. Sculptor and jeweler Hannah Heyman, for example, uses her artful mastery of the medium to create a signature texture to her pieces. Raw and rustic, her chunky rings, scalded charms, and custom belt-buckles scream originality – allowing the wearer to adorn themselves with pieces just as unique as themselves.

Aside from creating wearable body-art, Heyman also uses her metal manipulating skills to transport an audience to an alternate, welded reality. Questioning our relationship with raw materials, Heyman creates uncanny replications of swirling grasses, aluminum planks of hardwood, and a sky tapestry to satirize the irony of how we process our environment. An expert in manipulating her materials, her pieces are a way of understanding who she is as an individual and, as a result, how this resonates with the wearers of her pieces, or someone who encounters her sculptures being exhibited. Out of this world but entirely influenced by it, Heyman’s pieces are like a breath of fresh air, allowing us to explore the landscapes of her works in a way that is arguably better than nature.

Hey Hannah! How are you? What have you been getting up to lately?

Hi! Yeah, I’m good – the sun is finally returning to Stockholm, so everything is slowly waking up and the air feels energized. Most of my time is spent in my studio cooking up new jewelry and simultaneously sketching pieces for upcoming exhibitions, so I’m in a creative hole atm and I can’t wait to share it all. I read in a horoscope that this year will be one of my must successful ones, so I am eager to work and make sure it really turns out that way!

You definitely need to utilize that astrological advantage! It’s currently storming in Amsterdam, so I’m very jealous hahaha. To start off with, what first drew you to working with metals? My sister is actually thinking about going into welding after she graduates high school, so I’m curious as to what drew you to the medium and when you saw your own artistic potential within it?

Jewelry has been part of my life since forever – it started out as a hobby when I was a kid, and then eventually my curiosity led me to become a goldsmith apprentice at 15. That was really the first time I got in contact with metal. I wish I could say that it was love at first sight, but it took a while to get the hang of it. I’ve spent most of my life working with metal, making jewelry and getting to know it, so metal is just one of the building blocks that make up who I am. And so the potential of my craft was something I was able to comprehend first when I got older and got a better understanding of who I was in this world. Just like me, my craft is ever-evolving and I find new powers in it all the time.

I can imagine that the apprenticeship was something super necessary in both indoctrinating you into the craft, but then revealing all of the nuances that you could use to make it so personal. I truly admire how much skill and technique goes into creating all your pieces! I feel like the style of your work is so memorable and gives every piece such a special and personal touch. What inspired you to pursue this aesthetic, and what energy do you hope to rub off on those who are wearing your jewelry?

Thank you, makes me happy to hear that it shows! For me, the process and the end result are equal (maybe what matters the least is the idea) – I just want to work. Essentially, I’m a super nerd who loves metal and I want to spread the gospel of it to everyone! My aim is always to show the process and the dialogue had between the material and I in the finished piece. But also to force people to examine things closer in order to understand what they’re actually looking at. That’s why I love texture and different surface treatments. My jewelry has rough textures created when they were cast, and the objects I made for my master thesis for example, were all displaying different aspects of the material/occurrence they were depicting, rather than being made from it.

Wearing jewelry can be a very intimate thing, but so is the making of it too. When I create a piece of jewelry, I work with it so closely that a landscape within its surface appears, and my process turns in to a sort of terra forming of that space – mixed with attempts to understand what it can become. Intentionally leaving the raw texture of the silver is a way for me to honor the material at hand. Hopefully this translates for the wearer and they feel a connection to the piece when they wear it.

You can feel that connection even just looking at your pieces, so I’m sure it’s even more present IRL – it’s like wearing a gem of intimacy! I love how you are able to design such gorgeous, wearable art, as well as create and curate thought provoking exhibitions and sculptures. Do you approach these two contexts differently in terms of your creative process? Or is the original conceptualization the same, only with more so evolutionary differences? (I hope this makes sense hahahah)

My work is essentially me doing my best to materialize the world that is inside my mind, so yeah, you could say it all comes from the same place. The jewelry is there for the character (me) to understand who they are – or who they want to be – and the objects and installations make up the virtual setting to exist in. It turns everything in to play and I get to dig into things with the eager nosiness of a kid. Thanks to this I get to explore new techniques and materials, and create my own in order to best exhibit what goes on in my universe. Even though my intent is to showcase something from a different world, the reality is that they still have to made here. That’s why I have to take the material into consideration when making and they all have their own unique traits. So my approach is always the same, but the way I take on a material differs and therefore it creates different occurrences and objects.

I think that’s what makes your body of work so cohesive too – naturally you have your own style, but I think there’s something super unique that I can now almost immediately tell was made by you. I saw that you’re part of the Healthy Competition craft club! What has it been like working with other incredibly talented, multidisciplinary artists? Are there any memorable and special memories that you have from the collective?

Healthy Competition consist of Sara Kallioinen Lundgren, Fredda Berg and I, and it was born when we were studying the same master’s programme at Konstfack. We all felt that the teacher’s discourse didn’t really include our point of view, and so we just created our own platform. And also, it’s just an excuse for us to hang out hehe. It’s very fun, and challenging, to work with people that are both friends and colleagues, I think we all have developed new skills thanks to each other. Since we all work with different materials we get a great look into one another’s way of doing things. We have also been blessed with a space packed with history that fits both studio and exhibition space, so I look forward to see what the three of us will come up with!

So do I! I think that sometimes it can be hard to limit your own ideas into older models (like academic institutions for example), so it’s so nice and refreshing to kind of band together, and pave a new way for, and with, each other. Speaking of interesting exhibition spaces, I also saw that your exhibition Better than Nature is now on display at the Odenplan subway station! I loved that project of yours originally, but how do you think placing the pieces in such a transitory setting impacts the work?

Oh, this might have been one of the trickiest things I’ve done. I feel like someone who’s been more or less brain washed after 5 years at the same art school, you are taught there are certain ways to exhibit your work (especially within the field of jewelry). This is something that I’ve always questioned in my work, but still within the comfortable structures of the white cube. And so the glass case with a 360° view of my work was a big bite for sure! It forced me to look at my differently and made me see new qualities in them as well. For this transitional space I also added two sculptures that featured lenticular prints of a blue sky and a red-orange sunset that changed motifs as people walk along side the glass case. The space forced me to ask different questions when installing my work, for example it was a question of how the pieces would be experienced as people walk by, instead of moving through.

I love that approach, and the transition was so beautifully executed <3. Thank you so much for taking the time to answer these! You’re such a phenomenally talented artist and I can’t wait to see what you come out with in the future! You create such a large variety of pieces, so as one final question, I wanted to ask if there was any particular discipline you’ve been wanting to focus on? We’ve seen you design and create sculptures, jewelry, furniture – what world do you want to dip your toes into next?

Thank you, for all the thoughtful questions. Yes, there are definitely trails I’ve yet to walk, and things that I don’t know exist yet. Since working with metal is such an old craft, there are so many techniques within it and that’s where I feel the most grounded – I’ve never felt the need to limit myself to just a few. Depending on the project new techniques may become interesting, or it could be to use an old one in a new way. It all comes down to what I feel is missing for me, “What do I need?”. Right now I want to explore other body related objects, see how scent or taste can become part of the experience, extreme body modifications, dirt, chain mail, and become a somewhat pro in setting gemstones! ❀❀❀❀❀