Helmut Lang As Seen By Jeremy Deller

Where does your journey towards making jewelry begin?

I always knew I wanted to do something with my hands, and I was leaning towards the world of fashion. I didn’t excel in school and wasn’t good at being still. My mother told me that her first experience of my being completely still as a child was when I was given a needle and thread. She was shocked that I could actually sit still for extended periods of time and encouraged this since. I played a lot of sports as a kid, but going away to camp for badminton eg. I was more focused on packing the right outfits for after the games (laughs). I applied to design schools here in Denmark and took internships after high school, but I never got accepted into any of them! So I started to look elsewhere. I realized that I could apply for an apprenticeship as a jeweler. So I went to the library and printed my application on A3 papers, giant, because I needed to make sure mine stood out, which I thought was kinda cute and quirky, but I soon realized that it was a very serious business with people waiting years to get an apprenticeship, and my little stunt wasn’t going to be appreciated the way I thought. So, I didn’t get an apprenticeship but I was interning with a Danish clothing brand and through them I was fortunate enough to meet a jeweler who took me in and I started learning!

What does it mean to you, making jewelry, what’s your process like? 

I fucking love making jewelry so much! It is such an emotional outlet for me; banging on shit, focusing my energy. I trust my intuition but I’m sensitive in the process. When I first started making jewelry I didn’t really know much, but I knew how I wanted it to look, and then it was just a matter of finding the way. I used to do casting in water, and sometimes the silver formed as this little bell looking shape and I was able to use those to set the stones in, but I had no control over which stone would fit. As my skills evolved my entire process changed, finally I’m in control of the narrative which is important because for me everything starts with the perfect stone. I can spend hours and hours choosing the right stones and placing them for a bracelet.

Whether it’s the amber found by my father on Fanø, a piece of glass or the perfectly green peridot. The stones are everything to me, the different textures, colors, I love stones! At one point I had a teacher who introduced me to this Japanese book of colors (A Dictionary of Color Combinations). She’d talk so passionately about reading/looking in it every night, and the colors she’d love one night would never be the same as she’d appreciate the next. She’d describe being affected by the day she’d had; the color of the sky, the people sheød met, everything would have an impact on the way she’d read the colors later. At the time I thought this sounded a bit mental, but I really get it now and use it myself! Which ones really depends on the day and my mood. I can’t leave a piece unfinished and go home for the day because when I come back the next day I end up changing the stones from the day before - it’s ridiculous.

So your process is an emotional one, how is it for you to see your jewelry out of your hands then?

I have my direction but it’s so satisfying to see other people’s interpretation of how to wear the pieces. It inspires me a lot! I feel honored to be able to make these pieces and then pass them on to the right home. I was at a dinner party this summer where I had this insane moment of gratitude seeing everyone of my friends around the table wearing the pieces. And every single one of them paid for it with their hard earned money and that is very humbling to me. Thank you, friends!

Any memories of jewelry that you feel connected to?

Yes. Before my grandmother passed, she had instructed my aunt how to distribute some family heirlooms. Which is this big piece of jewelry, an amulet with beautiful carvings and all. I’d never dare to wear it, it’s so precious and I worry that precious things will just erode in my hands in general. Just look at my glasses (which are glued together across the bridge of her nose). This amulet is so insane though, sitting in a beautiful old giant wooden box with a push button opening, everything around this piece feels important. And inside this box there’s a hand-written note by my grandmother's mother naming who had the piece before them and when it was passed on. I don’t have anything else in my life like this piece connecting to my history and heritage. This piece of paper. And on the back of this amulet, there’s even a little window, or glass, and sitting behind that glass is a lock of my ancestors' hair. Little band around curly, neat and all! I’d never be able to wear it, but I have it and it means a lot to me.

If you could collaborate with an artist or person living or dead - who would it be?

So I saw this question and freaked out a bit because I immediately felt a pressure to come up with some cool answer you know!? Because it’s something where it kinda tells if you're a cool person who’s in the know or not.

But I do have my answer, I just feel it’s a bit pathetic! I was looking for alternatives to avoid this one because it felt like such an obvious answer being danish. It’s coming, don’t worry. So, my answer is H.C Andersen! When I was a kid, H.C Andersen was a haven for me. I had trouble sleeping as a kid, my brain would just keep on talking to itself. I remember my parents trying all kinds of things to get me to go to sleep more easily. As a birthday present turning 7 or 8 I received a complete set with 10 CDs with H.C Andersen’s fairy tales read aloud. Every night I would put a CD from the set and the magic of the tales would calm me down and send me off to dreamland. Except The Emperor's New Clothes, it was too exciting, I would stay up listening to that one to the end. My head can be a funny mess and something about these stories just gave me so much comfort.

I have always been quite afraid of death, the thought of people being taken from me and visa versa. I know most people are, but sometimes it really consumes my entire being, worrying about what could happen to them. H.C Andersen actually always brought a robe with him while traveling because he was anxious about the possibility of a fire happening! The robe would provide an escape, say he’d find himself in a burning building he’d be able to escape through the window. This logic, I mean, I have so many questions for him! Blew my mind when I found out I was born on the day he died, you know? So this is my very honest answer. H.C Andersen is magical to me, I’d really love to meet him. And if that’s not possible I’d love to have tea with all my grandparents at the same time. Him and them together would be epic.