In Triesand produced by Stephanie Schneider with Lars Knorrn, the portrayal of jewelllery as both an ethereal and personalised object appears intricably linked with a transient memory of youth, character and beauty

Stephanie Schneider like so many Northern European youngsters where it be Raf Simons or Belgian graphic designer Sara de Bondt start of their formulative years sun-glazing and day-dreamers in rural and scenic pastures. But it is because of this unique isolation from metropolitan life that an embryonic birth in creativity starts to emerge in such that Schneider would first study textiles and fashion design and embark on her own jewellery range entitled ’17′.

Not to be mistaken as Belgian-based designer Stephan Schneider’s daughter, she spent an intial nine months working for Kostas Murkudis in Berlin in 2000 leading her gradually become a design assistant with Hussein Chalayan in London and stayed with Murkudis for five years until 2009 as his ready-to-wear designer. Ultilising a built-up skillset attained at both major ateliers that span across techniques in how modern technology can distort, contrast and change the properties of fabric, embarking on her own brand ’17′ this puristic yet intricately linked concept contrasts a mixture of silver-smithing and yarn to produce a distilled object.

Currently, Schneider has developed a series of capsule collections that range and differ in their textural construction. ‘Crochet’ inbues formulative techniques in textile knitting with silver metal that she has produced as individual necklaces and earrings with a crystallised botanic quality. In ‘Clockwork’, time is distilled as round, circular linkages where gold brassed edged clogs highlight the inner mechanical workings of a watch time piece.

Whilst finding the materiality of solid metal to be distinguishable on the body as a status of femininity and persona adornment, Schneider has also sought to further advance metal’s malleable skin by enroping them with strains of mohair and silk, giving her strung bracelets and rings a ethereal yet ‘living’ positive energy.

Yet in describing the constructive process of ’17′, its a textiles based foundation than of a jewellery maker, “Since I got my degree and have worked many years as a fashion designer my techniques are textile orientated. I think this is what makes it special. I create jewelry pieces, use jewelers metal but the shapes I develop and build with my knowledge that comes from handling textiles. And somehow the pieces feel like a piece of textile.”

In combining both yarn and metal in unison she adds, “The combination of the material is so beautiful. Especially in the mohair you have the warm and the cold, the soft and the hard (the metal and the mohair yarn). I very much like this.”

Stephanie Schneider – www.stephanieschneider.de