Portrait

Der Goldschreiner,
The Gold-Sculptor

Martin Spreng comes from a family of artists where creation was an essential value that influenced his thirty years of artistic wood-carving in collaboration with the other members of Xylos, creators of extraordinary contemporary furnishings.

For Martin Spreng, leaving wood for jewelry was a progression, not a rupture: jewelry allows him to live his passion for exploring materials in all their potentials. And the freedom to craft his creations entirely from first sketch to final patina…

Fine Jewelry

Martin Spreng’s first pieces of metal jewelry were mingled with precious wood – a material he had already mastered fully – and were actually more of a pastime and a space of experimentation than a career goal. But jewelry-making quickly became an irresistible playground where he could allow his creative imagination to run free with a joyous disregard of accepted technical constraints. A reflection of the path(s) he has traveled, his jewelry is replete with the richness of the various skills he has developed along the way.

THE MATTER FIRST

Martin Spreng has always been guided by the Matter’s movement, whether the grain of wood or the structure of a gem, embracing their uniqueness and even flaws: he simply transitioned from the largest of surfaces to the tiniest of facets… Miniature constellations, craters and trajectories are formed as the matter speaks, suggesting inspired associations of wood and silver, gold, pearls and gems with inclusions, special effects, the beauty of their fusion with selected metals.

In a warm voice and light German accent, he admits to often getting a bit carried away and exuberant, undoubtedly influenced by his father’s richly colored works. By bringing various materials into the mix and then uniting them with finely chiseled décors, he magnifies every hue, luster and texture of every matter he touches.

ABSTRACT AND LYRICAL

Intricately crafted with a passion for fine detailing and interplay between the matters, Martin’s jewelry – although not figurative in the usual sense – somehow conjures up images of telluric events and moonscape-like surfaces. While generating unexpected shapes and textures, he reinvents surface treatments with a fusion of woodworking and fine jewelry techniques. The richness of the works delights the eye, illustrating his intimate dialogue with the materials, revealing their preciousness with his unique sense of color and éclat.

Each of Martin Spreng’s creations is a long process of maturation. A sort of “slow jewelry” where movements emerge, variations develop on piece after piece to form coherent series.