Interview with Nina Vidmar

I present work under my brand name - Nina Vidmar Bloom de Gemme. My main inspiration is nature's effortless beauty, and I see it as a force of femininity. I like to catch the beauty of nature and transform it into new creations that last and to be treasured for life. The idea of an eternal flower forever in bloom is always with me. Nature's creations captured in high karat gold and colourful gemstones.

Design for me is a way of someone's vision or solution of things. I use design as an opportunity to recreate my concepts and perception of beauty and creativity in jewellery.

My greatest passion is designing timeless jewellery pieces that make every woman feel special by wearing one. I also greatly enjoy when designing and creating clothes for myself.

All of my designs are very special to me, and I cherish every one of them. Every piece has its own story and reasons why it was made. Therefore all are my favourite ones.

The first piece I designed under my name was 1,32 ct diamond and 18K white gold Lotus Flower Ring.

My favourite metal for my jewellery designs is high karat gold.

I feel most creative when all is in perfect balance. When I have peace and creative environment. Like, for example, springtime, when nature revives, is the most exciting time for me. It feels so alive and reborn. I do most of my designs at this period of the year.

When designing a new piece of my floral jewellery I mostly focus on visual impression and fluidness of the shapes to gain the impression of movement. I constantly have in mind to maintain the ''live'' impression of the jewellery piece.

I go through all sorts of emotions during designing. Most of the time the strongest emotion is frustration because I usually start with one design and end up with several of them. In the end, I have significant issues with choosing one that represents the theme.

It takes a lot of time and a lot of effort from many skilful people during the production process. Therefore, we all feel happy almost ecstatic and relieved at the same time when we finally finish the piece and is functioning correctly.

It all depends on what the design is and what someone would use it for. For me, the first one is aesthetics and practical use.

I believe that every designer's responsibility to society is to design products that are generally helpful and useful. At the same time considering the environment by not using any harmful materials, to replace them with natural materials if possible. Respecting nature pays back to all of us greatly.

I am not curious about how the design field is evolving. I never did think much about what the future is going to be like. I like to see this along the way and enjoy the journey.

I mostly use nature, flora and fauna world as my source of all inspirations. That theme just suites me and there is never an end to new ideas and concepts. The environment serves as an inspiration source, but classical music is that necessary spice for me that lifts my creativity to do the end designs and concepts. Classical music takes me to the right creative mode in a second.

I feel like being at the best possible place/field when researching and studying nature's creations. I never had to think much about the theme that would suit me best because it was evident from the beginning. The natural world is glorious, exciting and complex, it also works incredibly feminine and that suites me well. I study the plants, feel, smell, look at their colors, textures, research it's growing stages, etc. I can get quite busy with all of this.

I live surrounded by nature and most of my life I lived close to nature. During my childhood, we kids were always outside in the woods, exploring bushes or on the grass fields picking some flowers and making flower crowns and rings. The fact that Slovenia is a very green country and nature is everywhere you look at that serves and is helpful in many ways. Also, the greenery is exceptionally versatile and vivid; you never get boring.

What begins as an idea, always finishes in the hands of master jewellers. The centuries-old tradition of crafting high jewellery starts with a specific concept that is transformed into a sketch. The art of lost-wax casting is an ancient method of fine jewellery fabrication which dates back over 6000 years. Also called cire-perdue, little has changed of the intricate technique, with our master Italian artisans following the same painstaking procedure as their ancestors. An original sculpture of the custom piece of jewellery is sculpted using a soft wax material. Once the sculpture is perfected, the wax is melted and a metal mould is produced, replicating the delicate jewellery design exactly. 18K gold is poured into the mould and then the meticulous process of finishing, polishing and perfecting the gold is completed before hand assembling the individually chosen gemstones. The entire detailed process is a true labour of love and the dedication of an accomplished artisan.

My five favourite items in my home are my big vintage mirror in the living room, ultra heavy crystal vases for my fresh flowers, the wooden mushroom sculpture from my grandfather and my mothers old stereo system and old vinyl records and cassettes.

Always stay true to yourself no matter what. It is the only way you can do your work in the best possible way.

I don't see any negative reasons for being a designer. For me this is one of the best occupations or better to say lifestyles there is if not the best. We create and show new perspectives add new dimensions to the things.

My golden rule in design is that you can never satisfy everybody's wishes or aesthetics, but you can always meet your own. Stay true to yourself; everything else comes second. Even if it happens that you are the only person in the world that sees sense in a certain design that you did. Sometimes you just have to do something that maybe doesn't make much sense to the other but makes all senses to you. And that is ok too.

In the first place, I would say the most important skill for any designer is vivid imagination and being able to see variations/transformations for a product. Also the skill of being able to project the vision from imagination onto the paper something that is inevitable.

I am an old school type of artist. I prefer traditional tools that have been around for centuries over modern technology. The most important for me is sketchbook and pencils. I prefer to go out and pick some flowers or undergrowth and study their characteristics. In my toolbox, you will find sketchbook, all sorts of pencils, watercolours, coal and real dry flowers, leafs, etc. Sometimes I also use books of flora theme.

It is hard and good organization skills are welcome. I am still working on that.

The process from design to final product creation usually takes a few months. It takes time for all testing, finding a solution to make the design resistant and durable. Most of the time is a technical challenge to make some pieces and all modifications. And there is also not to forget finding the right stones. Overall it is a great and quite interesting journey from sketch to the final product.

How much time did it take to make ''something''... And where do I come up with these ideas.

My plans for the brand are to attend relevant jewellery exhibitions to introduce my brand. In future plan is also to expand product selection and design some unusual types of jewellery pieces.

We are a team of many people. I am mainly responsible for the design and creative part; then there are sculptors that make wax or clay prototypes of jewellery pieces based on the sketch. There are also jewellers and gem setters that make the final jewellery creations.

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