The STFZ web site www.stfz.art.pl has been created and exists as result of free volunteer activity of our members. That is why we are sorry for not beeing able to translate to English all texts in links enclosed, publishing in English just brief information on each of described topic. But please, take a look at the pictures, we believe that with the English texts published they make sensible message on what we do in here.

January 2004

Warsaw, XIIth STFZ General Meeting..
Our members meet every year at the annual STFZ General Meeting. The XIIth STFZ General Meeting took place in Warsaw on January 10th, 2004. According to our constitution the STFZ members elect new steering committee every second year, but these non-electoral General Meetings give us a chance for more relaxed discussions on future plans and projects for our goldsmithing world.
photo, info (pl) >>>>

February 2004

Munich, Designer's Gallery at the Inhorgenta Fairs.
For the second time we have been present at the international fairs "Inhorgenta" in Munich. This year we have been presenting the exhibition "Prezentacje '2003", originally opened in October 2003 and organized by the occasion of Polish Fairs "Zloto-Srebro-Czas 2003" - "Gold-Silver-Time 2003 " by STFZ, by International Fair Centre and by the company Pracownie Sztuk Plastycznych for the third time in row. This event serves as good occasion for showing new ideas of younger generation of jewellery artists, designers, students etc.
photo, info (pl) >>>>

The course on theory and practice of goldsmithing for conservators of goldsmithing and silversmithing objects opened on February 27th, 2004, as a part of the post-graduate Seminar on Conservation of Metal Art Objects, at the University of Nicolas Copernicus, Institute of Conservation and Knowledge on Monuments of Art in the city of Torun, Poland. The head of the Seminar is professor Janusz Krause. The education has been conducted in two parallel ways - theory (lecturing) and the practice in workshop. The listeners were the conservators of metal art from all over the country. The lecturers at the Seminar were top Polish specialists like Michal Gradowski or Slawomir Safarzynski. Organizers are going to conduct the goldsmithing workshop for conservators on the end of this postgraduate seminar, which, perhaps, will be the beginning of permanent studio for conservation of goldsmithing and silversmithing objects at the Torun' Institute of Conservation and Knowledge of Monuments of Art. The listeners use for communication an email box studium-umk@o2.pl.

March 2004

Gdansk, competition "Elektronos `2004"
- the event accompanying fairs of jewellery and amber "AMBERIF `2004".

Promotion of amber understood as mean of artistic expression is the aim of this competition. Additional materials are accepted, the competition is open to all jewellery designers and makers, working individually or in teams. Projects are to be submitted in form of graphic or photo presentation of size 30 by 30 centimeters and as such are evaluated by jury; thus this is the contest of designs, projects, not of ready objects. Many jewellery artists from abroad present their works, and every year specialists - foreign and domestic - artists, gallery owners, journalists, art critics - are invited to sit in jury.
photo, info (pl) >>>>
also magazine Polski Jubiler, nr. 22(1) 2004 and www.polskijubiler.com.pl/pokaz.php?id=375 (pl)

May 2004

Legnica, The Legnica's Festival of Silver
The State Gallery of Art in the town of Legnica (South - West Poland) has been specializing for twenty-five years in presentation of artistic goldsmithing. This year the Legnica's event was celebrating it's 25th anniversary. The first Legnica's events were consisting of just one exhibition and competition. With years to came other accompanying events appeared, like presentations of an artistic silhouette of chosen artist goldsmith or artistic group, conferences where lecturing were delivered, exhibitions of the "Schools of Silver" series, and many other events. The used to be national event became international.
more info - Gallery of Art in Legnica >>>>

In the year 2004 the Legnica Festival of Silver has been consisting of:

• 13th International Competition of Goldsmithing Art; the subject is "SMS - Short Message Silver".      photo, awards >>>>
  
  
• "The Birthday Party" exhibition showing works by individually invited foreign and domestic jewellery artists who have already marked their presence at the former Legnica events, contributing to the image/character of the Legnica's centre by presenting their works there. Organizers have managed to invite special guests - prominent artists from Australia, Spain, Japan, Italy, Holland, Great Britain, Norway, France, Ukraine, Russia, Germany, Israel, USA, Austria, Portugal, and Sweden. Due to former division of the world we knew many of these artists from literature or internet only. So very many guests were able to join our Birthday Party thanks to efforts and contribution of Giedymin Jablonski, who has assisted organizers in the best possible way.
  photo, info >>>>
  
  
• In the "Silver Schools" cycle we saw this time the works by students of Royal Academy of Fine Arts from Oslo, and of the Le Arti Orafe School from Florence.
  photo, info (pl) >>>>
  
  
• There's been also the seminar titled "Borders of Global Art" with seven speakers delivering lecturing.      photo, info (pl) >>>>
  
  
• the exhibition 'Visual Poetry" presenting works by Joanna Ratajczak - Kurowiecka
  photo, info (pl) >>>>

The students of University of Warsaw, Institute of History of Art, learning the history of goldsmithing in the academic year 2003/2004 have been visiting on May 22nd 2004 the antique jewellery gallery of Jacek Zieta in Warsaw for short practice. Jacek Zieta, the jewellery and gemology expert, President of Polish National Chamber of Commerce for Jewellers and Watchmakers is known as a person devoted to the history of art of goldsmithing and open for cooperation with theoreticians and historians of art of goldsmithing.

June 2004

Sandomierz, Poland,
"The striped flint stone - the stone of optimism"

The museum of the city of Sandomierz (South-East Poland) situated in the Sandomierz Castle has been hosting the exhibition under the title stated above. The striped flint stone is the mineral, which is to be found in the area around the town of Sandomierz only, what makes it unique in the macro-scale of the world. And from here comes the idea of using it for jewellery, originally developed by the STFZ member, Cezary "Czarek" Lutowicz. This first exhibition opened the permanent exposition of jewellery with striped flint stone in the Sandomierz museum. The catalogue of this exhibition and special leaflet edited in three languages describes the history of the striped flint stone and of it's use in workshops, organized in Sandomierz every second year with help of local administration under the auspices of local authorities and SFTZ.
photo, info (pl) >>>>
about striped flint & Cezary Lutowicz >>>>
http://republika.pl/mosandomierz/swz.html (pl) >>>>

July 2004

On the end of July 2004 the Bielak gallery in the city of Krakow [www.galeriabielak.pl] has been presenting the exhibition "Jewellery from Sweden". The idea of this exhibition has been developed and coordinated by Mona Wallstrom, Swedish jewellery artist and teacher, known also from her activity in the Ars Ornata Europeana contact net. She decided to organize the exhibition of contemporary Swedish artistic jewellery and to present it abroad.

Mona Wallstrom has asked the Dutch gallery owner, Marie-Jose van den Hout, (gallery Marzee, Nijmegen, Holland), for choosing artists who will present there works. From the list of over 100 names Marie-Jose van den Hout has chosen 15 artists. This traveling exhibition opened for the first time in the gallery Marzee, then it has been shown in the Bielak gallery, Krakow, Poland. After presentation in Krakow the exhibition was moved to gallery Orfebres, Barcelona, Spain. On the beginning of the new year 2005 the exposition will be presented at the gallery Flow in London, from there it will go to gallery Alternatives in Rome.

Next places are: The Velvet da Vinci Gallery, San Francisco, USA and, finally, the Mobilia Gallery, Cambridge, USA. The exhibition is accompanied by well-edited catalogue.

From the past

Since the end of the Second World War in 1945 until 1989 Polish artists goldsmiths were not working in gold, mostly because of restrictions put on access to this material by regulations made by former regime.

Thus we decided to remind here, that the first public presentation of Polish artistic jewellery made with use of gold took place by the occasion of opening the non-existing today the Arteon Gallery run by Krystyna Kalinska in the building of the Marriott hotel in Warsaw on November 30th, 1990. The second presentation of Polish artistic jewellery made with use of gold took place just a couple of days later, on December 14th, 1990 at the Dolna Volta gallery of Jacek Reszetko in Warsaw.