Interview with Anna-Reetta Väänänen
Anna-Reetta Väänänen makes her nature and story inspired jewelry design at the countryside. Her jewelry brand Anna's Darling is not the most common one because of her methods, style and location.
Design Legend Interview
23 April 2021
I got interested in design as a young adult. I have grown in an environment where usability, function and beauty are the main reasons for getting artefacts. A good understanding of form giving and the love towards arts comes from my childhood hobbies. I fell in love with jewelry design meanwhile my studies in Kuopio Academy of Design Savonia University of applied sciences. I think I knew I wanted to work with arts and have a creative job, but the full understanding of design and especially jewelry design grew during my studies. I have a degree in product design (jewelry and metalwork) (BA) and business and administration (MA). As a designer who works also as an entrepreneur is good to combine knowledge from both of those fields. I have started my design career from jewelry factory and after that I improved my skills by working as a goldsmith and a saleswoman in a jewelry store. I have gathered knowledge from all fields of jewelry, I think. It’s a whole package and not just a slice of it.
I wanted to create beautiful and meaningful jewelry that last time. I also enjoy working with my hands and imagination.
It was more or less my destiny to become a designer. I never planned it.
In the future I want to design jewelry. But I would like to collaborate with other fields as well like bag design.
I want to encourage young designer to explore all kinds of interesting sides of life. Every single experience grows your knowledge and improves your skills in design. I think open minded thinking can make a difference.
A skill to make timeless, time lasting ang high quality design that is also functional and beautiful more than once.
I evaluate the greatness of design with the number of times I use or could use the product or design. It’s not enough just to wear or use something only once. If the appearance of the item still touches you after years, it’s great design.
Value of good design can be measured in many ways, not only in money. Sometimes the value can be personal, cultural or even environmental. To invest in good design is like sending a message to designers to continue their work with improving our world.
I would design jewelry to all of those who have a beautiful story to tell.
My dream project would be making an exclusive an nordic style jewelry collection together with Dior. I admire their style and skills in jewelry making.
My secret ingredient in design is love. I’m such a sentimental fool that it almost makes me laugh. I add emotions and love in to everything. I want and can tell stories with my design.
I admire Finnish jewelry legend Björn Weckströms open-minded way to create items. And I also admire shoe designer Minna Parikka’s way of branding.
I can not choose the best from my favorites but I think I like Harri Koskinen's K chair. I find it a great combination of traditional Finnish weaving technique and modern design.
My favorite is Waves jewelry collection. It has that something. Weight, looks and wearability all in one.
Listening to customers and customer segments feedback is important. I also find very important to improve technical skills by training.
I would probably be a graphic designer. It’s really hard to consider another profession because I have really lost my soul to jewelry.
I define design as a combination of information, knowledge, feeling, appearance and the brand all in one.
I have to thank my family and friends from all the support they have given me through all these years. I admire many people and owe then a lot from their kind words and encouragement. My teacher from Kuopio Design Academy once told me he believed I was going to be great in design. Perhaps that is something to remember. I hope all talents get support from someone they look up to.
I have inherited a character that is relentless. Maybe I have to thank my parents for that.
It takes a lot of recourses to make it in design business in Finland. It has been a long way to be taken seriously.
E-platforms have bee a great place to get your design in to public knowledge. High quality and original style are the ways to present design.
Right now I am working with new jewelry collections for next season. I hope I will find my way to collaboration projects as well.
I don’t know if I have an ultimate goal as a designer. Life and a career is a marathon for learning. Maybe my goal is to learn and design as much and as good as I can.
People expect great design and variable jewelry. They expect quality and usability.
There are many possibilities to influence society or make it better. My way of doing it is to design object that last time. I try to encourage people to consume wiser and less. I also recognize my responsibility in recycling and preparing jewelry.
I am excited about collaborating with a sports team and their social behavior.
I get the biggest satisfaction from happy customers. When I get their stories to shine in a jewelry I am happy.
I would like to see changes in our ways to consume and manufacture. Environmental issues are for all of us to rethink. It’s a matter of over consuming and creating things that can’t last time or be repaired. Shiny brand is not enough.
Design business is heading towards recycled materials and slow design. This current pandemic has given us ability to look really close and pay attention to things that really matter.
A design project can take from weeks to years. To finish a unique piece can sometimes be really fast but to finish a design that is part of a collection can take years. Maybe 3 years is the maximum time I have spent on a project.
I start on the issue. I approach it from many angles and choose the things I want to explore. To understand the problematics and cultural meaning is important. Then I move towards sketches and paper wax or metal models.
Make only things that matter.
Design sets the trends.
I use old goldsmith’s techniques, lost wax casting and modern 3d modelling and printing. I use all kinds of combinations of technology everyday.
I use Adobe softwares, Rhinoceros 3D-modelling software but I have traditional goldsmiths equipment’s too.
Creating harmony is a challenge, I think. Materials can be considered as a limitation or as a possibility. It depends how you see it. There can be unlimited amount of variations in working with precious metals.
I love when people as me the story behind a jewelry. Then I know they are graving for more then just a pretty surface.
Great design makes me want to try it or touch it. For example, you know when you see a great handle, you want to touch it.
My ideal design partner or a co-designer would be someone who knows different kind of skills than I. It would be nice to learn and teach and by that create something new and unseen.
Everyone I meet influences me and my design. I just have to find the right time and place to use the influence in a right way. I keep my eyes on fashion to see the trends but at the same time I keep my feet on the ground to feel the roots.
I read children’s books and novels. They have given me high imagination.
Skills have been achieved by years of training in multiple fields of jewelry making and business thinking. It’s not easy to explain. it’s something you achieve by doing and trying.
I would like to meet Astrid Lindgren to talk with her about her life.
I do not consider myself as famous. It’s not something to aim at. More important is to be true to yourself and make your best everyday in work and life itself.
I have many favorite colors. It changes in every season. My favorite place is my parents’ lakeside home and their dock. I like summer the most but winter is also just perfect. My favorite brand is right now Weecos a sustainable webshop.
My funniest memory from my designer career must have been the first photo shoots when I decided to train a young cow for the pictures. I went to a barn with a big ego and ended up being pulled on the floor by a very powerful animal. It was a good reminder that I have to take things slow and respect animals instincts and nature.
My open-minded and exploring nature is my strength. It motivates to think what new can I create today.
It was not obvious to become a designer. As a child it is more important to try everything and explore the world, culture and try techniques freely as much as possible. I think it’s the best for kids to let them show their own interest and let the time do the work.
I hope the future holds good things for a humankinds and earth. I hope by then we have achieved understanding of our ecosystem and respect everything around us.
You can make pretty things easily. But pleace try to make more than that.
Designer Interview
27 October 2022
I was supposed to be a cartoonist. I crew up with Belgian classics and Donald Duck. I applied for design school to become a cartoonist but I fell in love with jewelry design. My teacher encouraged me to continue with jewelry and after fifteen years I still agree with him. My hands and precious metals seemed to belong together. I understood the material and was able to give it incredible forms.
I started my own business in 2012 Kuopio, Finland. I worked in a small jewelry boutique as a saleswoman and I just wanted to do more. During my career I have been working in several tasks in the field of jewelry from making to preparing. I have also been a jewelry design lecturer for a few years. I think this gives me a comprehensive knowledge of jewelry in several points of view. By having my own business offers a great platform to use the knowledge and make the best of it. My workshop in Sonkajärvi, Finland includes a small workshop and design boutique where I sell Finnish Design. I want to support other designers and offer sustainably made items to local people.
Good design means multiple things to me. It’s a matter of visual beauty, artisan skills, customer and user based design, sustainable manufacturing and products lifecycle thinking.
I like to design usable jewelry that stand out. My design has to tell a story or have meaning.
Waves jewelry set was one of my favourites. Designing process just feels right when you are making your best piece. Idea story, form and the flow just click. After the moment you lay your hands on the finished product you just know it’s perfect.
I started by making unique jewelry directly to customers in a small goldsmiths store in 2009. Those two years were challenging for me as a beginner. All the lessons learned in design school had to be transferred in to action. Every customer was a new challenge for a young designer. I had to learn new techniques quickly and visualize the customer needs and then make the jewelry to fit the needs. I also repaired customers old jewelry during that time and it taught me technically.
I love all precious metals. Silver and gold are my favorites. Most of my jewelry is made by lost wax casting. Sometimes with prototypes I start with wax which is easily molded. Some jewelry I design with 3D program and pass the file onwards to be 3D printed or CNC carved.
Creativity doesn’t ask the time or place. Good ideas can happen anywhere. Though the most often ideas come from the surrounding nature. The best place to make the ideas in to concrete things is my own workshop and my own table. My goldsmiths table is a big mess with all the tools but it gives me the feeling of control and harmony.
I try to focus in several aspects of design when I’m making my jewelry. Jewelry has to please the eye offcourse. Jewelry has to be beautifull from every angle but also usable. If the jewelry is difficult to wear maybe there is something to change. Visual features have to tell a story so the jewelry is not just a pretty little thing.
It’s never just one feeling on my mind when designing a jewelry. It’s a pack of emotions that are included in to you subject. I seldom design anything cold. It has to have a bright and loving side in it.
During the design process I feel all the emotions from excitement and confidence to frustration and devastation. After the final piece of jewelry is in my hands, I feel joy and pride. That’s the phase what I want to share with the world. This is kind of rough but it’s rewarding.
Successful design is an answer to all the problems you tried to answer during the design process. Some might say it’s a matter of sales but I think it’s more than that.
I consider quality novelty usability and visual features to be the first thing when judging design.
A designer must consider the whole life cycle of the item from designing until the disposal. The possibilities must be considered carefully to make the designs life as long as possible. I believe in “better choices and less often” as a consumer. That is something I look for from all the items I make, sell or buy.
In the future design might go in to more personal direction and more digital. Small businesses make their way out with the digital channels. Consumers appreciate that something is made only for them and by someone special. I hope the jewelry business overall finds its way to more recycled material.
My last exhibition was a part of Design Week Kuopio 2020 event. I was one of the local participants from all fields of design and arts in this area. I am hoping to have my 10 years as a Designer at 2022 when my company turns 10 years old. It might be a good time to gather all the material in to one exhibition from sketches to final jewelry.
Nature is the biggest inspiration for me considering the form. But the idea and the soul of design is in human beings and feelings. Without a story there is no need of form.
I approach the design from a very humane aspect. My visual style is quite clear and minimalistic.
I moved back to my home village Sonkajärvi 7 years ago from the city. I spent my childhood at a farm I have inherited a love towards nature, animals and countryside. Forests fields and lakes are part of my everyday life. We have a dairy farm we take care of and everything related to that gives me perspective to the surrounding world. Hard working is a must when we are talking about design or farming. I might say my home and roots shows in my design.
Right now I make design only for my own company.
Design processes follow some kind of a routine from idea to the final jewelry. I spend the longest time on the thought or the vision I am trying to visualize. My questions that lead the design are: Why do I want to do this? How would I like it to appear? Who is my customer? What is the new I am creating? Then combining idea to one another it starts to get its form. Testing construction and making models take big part as well. Manufacturing, used techniques weight make the cost construction and are also part of the process.
I am not a fan of buying design only because it is labelled as design. We have a hundred years old traditional Finnish girder house decorated with old furniture and items. Everything holds a piece of history either it is received as a gift, bought for a need or self-made item. I value our ancestors good sense of usability and craftsman skills.
My normal day starts with a date with our cows. After a morning coffee I go to the barn to clean and feed our calves. After feeding our family I head to my workshop and open my design shop. My daily bases include all the normal entrepreneurs work from customer service to billing. There are days I spend fully on designing new jewelry and days I spend making it. After the day with jewelry I go home and try to find some time for my hobbies, family and fresh air. The best balance comes from combining it all together.
By trying and trying again you will find your own style and way to work. Trust me, you know when it’s good.
It can be hard for beginners to find funding in jewelry design business. It’s also important to have enough human recourses if needed. The best as being a designer is the freedom of making your mark in human lives and the responsibility that follows from that.
My golden rule in design is to follow my instincts and listen to people. I make my first pieces of jewelry with my own style and follow my own processes. Then I show the prototype my friends and some of my customers. I make the form and the main idea but the others give the ideas to make it even better. I listen to their suggestions and make changes if needs.
It’s important to be sensitive in a way. Not everything is always said out loud in words. I consider material knowledge and form giving skills to be important as well.
I use traditional goldsmiths tools, pens and markers, and Rhinoceros 3D modeling program.
Sometimes I over think things. Then it’s best to just start doing a model in wax or metal. My best reminder of the time is a growing list of customers orders.
The jewelry design process can very much differ in its length. Some pieces come together in weeks and some pieces take a few years. It depends on the task. I have multiple processes coming at the same time.
Where do you get your ideas from? How do you make your living by jewelry in such a small place like Sonkajärvi?
I have been a cleaner, baby sitter, waitress, bartender, saleswoman, goldsmith, lecturer and a farmer. Every job has given me something. The is no better or worst. It has been a process of growth and learning.
I have clients all over Finland. Mainly private jewelry users who like my style and way to think about jewelry. My customers often share the same value base as I do.
I enjoy design that can last time and can be reused. Good design fits you perfectly and feels like it’s made for you.
In big scale I hope my future holds a long career in the field of jewelry and design. I hope I can offer good design to a lot of people and make their lives better in some way. Maybe the next concrete steps are to get my company more in to peoples knowledge and get my design in exhibitions and to do co-work with bigger companies.
I work on my own but I would be nothing without my lovely customers and friends who give their help to me when designing new jewelry.
My contacts can be found from my companies website: www.annasdarling.fi