°'HRIAM Jewellery: Interview with the brand’s founder, Méri Charitonidi.

Image: '°HRIAM, tamata charms bracelet, collab project with Melissanthi Spei, photo Nicolas Odyssea Andreou

Méri Charitonidis is the name of the artist and jeweler, who is behind the new but established jewelry brand °'HRIAM. All jewelry is designed and created in Copenhagen and Athens, places that are an inspiration for their implementation. Timelessness, individuality and sustainability are just some of the qualities of °'HRIAM's collections, while also characteristic of all the pieces is that they are address all genders. The jewelry combines the Mediterranean style with the Scandinavian harmony in exceptional jewelery sets. The collection entitled SHALES, which is the most famous series of the brand, has been in the Museum of Cycladic Art since November.

Méri, would you like to tell us a bit about your academic and artistic background? How did you decide to make jewelry?

I studied Culture & Cultural Management in Athens, worked for some years in cultural institutions and then moved to Copenhagen to continue my education in Creative Writing and Film Studies, ending up with a master of arts in Audiovisual Aesthetics. In my free time, I actively seek to attend art shows, go to the movies or a play, read and write. I am deeply interested in art and all its forms.

Jewellery had always been there, one way or another. I am fascinated by the way these objects become an extension of an ear or a nose, part of a finger, and how a necklace can become an amulet or a symbol, an integral part of the body. It is somewhat the smallest part of an appearance and at the same time the most important one, as styling detail, a decorative input even. Jewels can be special personal gifts, items that are passed on to future generations, carrying meaningful moments and emotions. I have been involved with jewellery-making since I was little, but did stop for a few years and then it somehow came back to me in the most natural way, so much that I didn't even notice how °'HRIAM came into existence. 

°HRIAM, ultimatum extravaganza, image by Konstantinos Argyriou

During the last six years you’ve been mostly living and working in Copenhagen. How has this experience been so far?

Copenhagen is the best thing that has ever happened to me regarding my personal development. I feel like I came here to prepare for the second act of my life, mature, and carve myself exactly as I want to. I would not be the person I am today if it weren’t for this city. The change was very abrupt in the beginning, and I was not ready, even though moving here was my own concrete choice. It took me two whole years to fully adapt and call it “home”. Copenhagen completes Athens for me and vice versa. I still struggle travelling back and forth, but I cannot do otherwise. Neither of them is a permanent locus, at least not for now. I prefer being split in half.

What is your creative process like and what mediums do you use in your practice?

I am not a master goldsmith, I just deal with what I have learned and observed here and there playing with forms and materials of my interest. This attitude is rather audacious, but to be honest, some kind of freedom derives from this lack of structured education and practical background. I like the fact of not knowing which exact tool to use. I relish that in the end, all the objects will have to serve my workflow, liberating me from the possibilities or the impossibility so that the design stages are not preconceived throughout the ideation procedure. I allow my ideas to guide me and this will get me somewhere, unrestricted from any empirical or technical rule of thumb. I am mostly interested in matter and its transformations, the properties it gets -or not- from its environment and how a creator can direct it. The action of forms is of great importance to me. There are no complete drawings -hardly ever- but I usually do have some sort of text that I simultaneously work on. It all starts with an idea, even if I have not identified or captured it entirely. For example, my latest collection "POMEGRANATES'' came from an intention to interpret the pomegranate seeds in my project. These seeds lead to the creation of a tree, then its flowers, and finally its fruits, reappearing as a natural circle of life. The cycle of the seed, standing for life, maturity and then death, was rendered through granulation. The intention was to imitate this ancient technique in a manner of plasticity, to inculcate a contemporary interpretation of it, via various dimensions and shapes. Thus, the emerged pieces aim to represent this narrative, which has occupied me intensely for the past year and a half (birth - bloom - death). I also greatly enjoy working with organic matter and fragments of materials I find, anything interesting from whatever I may spot in my environment that I can make use of. I work erratically and without a specific methodology. I am very absorbed in the practice without always thinking about how to reach a particular result. The final object will be incompletely complete and I realize it unconsciously during the working procedure. Sol LeWitt once said, "The idea itself, even if not made visual, is as much a work of art as any finished product" I sometimes think about that and how many works we may have created before reaching the final one. My works are messy, some are made of organic matter or wax (hand-microsculpting), others are digitally built and then 3d printed and a few are hybrids of diverse mediums.

HRIAM, the shield bespoke

photo BlenderFactory aka Valiana Variantza

How would you describe your jewelery in relation to design and their aesthetic language? What is your research process and your main sources of inspiration?

My designs are raw, very raw and full of mistakes. The style is rather abstract at times, and sometimes minimalistic. The aesthetic language is conceptual but also semantic at the same time.

There isn’t anything specific that I have noticed as a source of inspiration. It could be a detail on a building, a stroke on a painting, a narrative, a face, a collection of stimuli, an idea; I don't really know. As for the research process, the first iterations derive from a blurred notion that extends through speculation amid creation and production. This is a constantly emerging process that keeps changing until the final model is done. I blend fashion, cinema, literature, and anything else that concerns me, with something intimate.

HRIAM, selection from The Pomegranate Collection

Why do you think the art of jewellery is cherished so much? Which is your favourite piece of jewellery and what does it mean to you?

Probably, the most evident reason why is that they serve as heirloom pieces. For instance, in cases of custom-made design pieces, an unspeakable narrative could be depicted in order to interpret or safeguard exceptional connotations. These small sculptural objects have been an important part of human history for centuries, for various reasons such as decorative, symbolic, or even the demonstration of power and artistic expression. It's complicated; each person acquires a piece deriving from a different mindset. Personally, I cherish jewellery that strikes me as the outcome of a study in patience, intellect and dexterity, devotion and uniqueness.

My black rough diamond gold ring. A unique and unexpected cut for the classic standards of jewellery. This stone is randomly (natural breakage) shaped and the metal binds it steadily, such that together they form a complete and single entity. I very much identify with this structure and the narratives that it triggers for me.

HRIAM, cyclades necklace, shales collection

Would you like to share some of your thought regarding industry and the footprint it may leave on our planet? What would you consider as “ethical” production?

There are plenty of issues revolving around these matters and some of them are still unresolved. I think that the safest way is to set the focus on small and even custom made items, using certified materials, recycling as much as possible, and so on. In general, I would say that ethical production, transparency throughout all the stages of supply in all its sectors, in addition to setting solid goals toward sustainability, such as aiming for diachronic creations, might be a favourable way to go

Who do you make jewellery for?

Anyone, absolutely anyone. I really mean this and I try to communicate it as much as possible. I do not just make the pieces you see in my collections, these are the ones I simply choose to present as a whole body of work. Apart from that, I work on unique pieces for bespoke orders in collaboration with the contractor for the purpose they desire and this is when I am honoured to take upon the challenge and create something exclusive, since it will usually be a gift to a loved one, as an item of significant narrative. I really like this; applying a unique touch to people's lives. I particularly enjoy thinking about how the existence of this item, that came out of my work, correlates with the bearer.

What do you do beyond jewellery? Are you creating something particular at the moment?

Apart from jewellery, I am in the process of making a chandelier and I am very involved with furniture and decoration. In the future, I want to explore large-scale constructions, such as buildings. I hope to be given the opportunity to do that at some point because if not I speculate that my ideas won’t fit in texts and sketches and I need to make something out of them.

“Stay true, dripping in gold”, could you elaborate a bit on phrase? 

We use this phrase in °'HRIAM quite often. Gold is not supposed to have been created on earth but has rather elicited from supernovae and neutron star collisions that occurred before our solar system was even formed. It is a part of the whole world (κόσμος), from which the word jewellery (kósmima [κόσμημα < κοσμέω/κοσμῶ]) originates. This phrase is like a value, for being authentic, versatile and self-luminous.