“You can’t cry on a diamond’s shoulder, and diamonds won’t keep you warm at night, but they are sure fun when the sun shines.” -- Elizabeth Taylor
Internationally known metalsmith Barbara Heinrich and Timo Krapf, a sparkling mother-and-son jewelry making duo, are bringing their timeless creations to Chestnut Hill, Nov. 13, for the 10th annual Barbara Heinrich Trunk Show at Gravers Lane Gallery.
The shopping event, from 2 to 7 p.m. offers customers a special showing - and opportunity to purchase - the jewelers’ latest work in the pop-up tradition of the trunk show, which got its name because merchandise would be transported to boutiques and studios in a trunk.
Barbara Heinrich, 70, whose studio is in Pittsford, NY (near Rochester), grew up in Germany in a family that has grown grapes and made wine near Stuttgart for the last 450 years. Growing up, her playground was the vineyards of her family, where she found inspiration that has been serving her ever since. Many of her creative ideas come from the botanical world. Heinrich has been a longtime exhibitor at the prestigious Philadelphia Museum of Art's annual craft show.
“I discovered early on how the transformative ability of jewelry can transport you to a different world,” she told the Local last week. “I would wrap a blade of grass around my finger and run to my mom, showing her proof that I was a princess because someone had given me this ring. Or I would wrap some flowers into a wreath, place it on my head and pretend I was going to a ball at the nearby castle.
“Nature has been my inspiration all along and still is today,” Heinrich continued. “I never remember a time when I did not make jewelry. For me, apple seeds strung into a necklace became jewelry, and so did dried and dyed noodles on a string. Later, I discovered how silver wire and glass beads, feather, leather, aluminum and other non-precious materials were all perfectly suited for jewelry materials.”
When Heinrich finally enrolled into a formal goldsmithing apprenticeship in Germany at age 19, she already had more than a decade of jewelry making experience. She also studied jewelry design at the Pforzheim Academy in Germany's Black Forest for five years, focusing on art education in drawing, painting and sculpture as well as jewelry design.
She came to the U.S. from Germany in 1983 through a Rotary International Scholarship. The award helped her earn a MFA degree at Rochester Institute of Technology. During her master's degree studies at the school, Heinrich fell in love, and instead of returning to Germany in 1986, she got married that year to Gregory Krapf. The couple stayed in Rochester, where they raised two children, Tanya and Timo, and built a jewelry studio next to their house so Heinrich could work and be available to her children.
Heinrich's son Timo specializes in a type of metal forming known as anticlastic raising, a technique of metal forming whereby sheet metal is formed directly with a hammer on a snake-like stake. Timo graduated from the Metals and Jewelry Design BFA program at Rochester Institute, his mother’s alma mater.
“From childhood on, Timo was inspired by his mother's goldsmithing studio. He is drawn to simple, pure forms and pieces with graceful, fluid lines,” a spokesman for Slate Gray Gallery in Telluride, Colorado, told the Local last week. The gallery is known for its showcasing of contemporary art and jewelry.
Bruce Hoffman, executive artistic director at Gravers Lane Gallery, called Krapf’s work “brilliant,” especially the jeweler’s 18 classical, twisted, highly polished pieces that were created with a modernist flow and accented with dazzling black diamonds.
“This year will be the first time we are officially representing Timo and Barbara at the same trunk show,” Hoffman said. “Combined, their work really appeals to almost all aesthetics.”
Kate Crankshaw, associate artistic director at Gravers Lane Gallery, added, “We always have some of Barbara’s work in the gallery, around 10-15 pieces usually. However, for the trunk show, she brings hundreds of styles … By looking at Barbara's and Timo's work together, you can see the influence Barbara has had on her son and how he has taken what he’s learned from her, as well as his other mentors, and made it his own.”
Gravers Lane Gallery is at 8405 Germantown Ave. For more information, call 215-247-1603 or email info@graverslanegallery.com. Len Lear can be reached at lenlear@chestnuthilllocal.com
