Bronze, silver and gold… A handcrafted journey with goldsmith Susann Janensch
Our workshop at Leipziger Tapetenwerk is constantly evolving. Now also in terms of personnel. For a few weeks now, Susann Janensch, a blacksmith, has been supporting the production of our damask wedding rings at the workbench with a great deal of love and passion. After just a few days: a conversation about you, your life, your idea of jewellery and the difference between a goldsmith and a silversmith.
Our workshop at Leipziger Tapetenwerk is constantly evolving. Now also in terms of personnel. For a few weeks now, gold and silversmith Susann Janensch has been supporting the production of our damask wedding rings at the workbench with a great deal of love and passion. After just a few days: a conversation about you, your life, your idea of jewellery and the difference between a goldsmith and a silversmith.
Susann Janensch is actually a trained silversmith. She completed her training in a traditional monastery workshop near Koblenz. There she came into contact with the production of larger objects in particular. In the early years, she forged bowls, cups and candlesticks, for example.
“Essentially, that’s the big difference,” she explains. Silversmiths mainly produce bodyware and sacred artefacts. Goldsmiths, on the other hand, concentrate primarily on making jewellery.
In silversmithing, the shapes of the pieces are larger overall, so a special feel and sensitivity for the material is required to ensure that everything fits exactly in shape in the end.
After completing her training, she initially worked in a traditional goldsmith’s shop. She was already familiar with many things at that time, but “I had to learn everything that distinguishes goldsmithing from silversmithing,” recalls Janensch.
The work in the jewellery sector is often more delicate. It was a change for her at first. “Because silversmiths forge more, they have a greater sense of form and have to model much more often,” she reports. A goldsmith, on the other hand, usually has to bend and file their material more, build chain clasps etc. and measure the jewellery sizes.
Janensch had her first contact with the craft as a small child. As the daughter of a trained precision mechanic, she quickly became fascinated by precise and perfectly crafted jewellery. She still fondly remembers her family’s jewellery box, which fascinated her from an early age.
“As a teenager, I started making jewellery myself. Back then, I particularly enjoyed working with glass beads and shells. I also loved new and unusual things and tried to combine unconventional things,” says Susann Janensch, smiling happily.
After leaving school, she travelled to New Zealand and Scotland, spent a lot of time in nature and gardened in various places. Her love of nature and nature conservation has always been close to her heart and this connection to nature still accompanies her in her artistic work today.
“Especially the fact that gold is in great demand and therefore always in short supply makes 100 per cent environmental protection in my profession really not easy,” she says. But regardless of this fact, she tried to use sustainable materials right from the start.
She is delighted that the “Goldschmiedewerkstatt Joachim Bartz” has been working for many years with, among other things, river gold, which is extracted in an environmentally friendly way. “It further encourages me to think and act in terms of sustainability in order to protect the basis of life for all of us.”
In 2014, Susann Janensch won the state goldsmith and silversmith apprenticeship competition (Rhineland-Palatinate) with her journeyman’s diploma. In the same year, her journeyman’s piece was honoured as the 1st national winner in the silversmith training competition.
Janensch is always trying out new things and is not afraid to go down paths that she has never travelled before. She has already worked with fossils, Greek coins and small parts of musical instruments in her jewellery making.
If you talk to the craftswoman about all the ideas she has, you quickly realise what she is all about:
Her jewellery should be individual and always have something very personal about it. She therefore always focuses on the highest quality in her production.
“Jewellery should be an expression of your own attitude to life. It should delight people and enhance them. Working on jewellery is also something that delights me every day, something that touches me deeply and fulfils me.”
Before joining our workshop, she only knew damask from swords and knives. But when she heard about the workshop, her ears pricked up. “I’ve always been very inquisitive and I’m very happy to be able to learn new techniques here,” she says during an interview in the workshop. What do you find special about damask rings? “Definitely the fact that every damask ring is unique in its grain and therefore has a very individual value.”
Janensch finds the personal contact with customers and couples particularly fulfilling. Even when wrapping rings that have been worked on for hours or days, “I always experience a very fulfilling feeling, which is also accompanied by pride and a little excitement,” she says, nodding.
You hear about this joyful excitement again and again in the workshop: the feeling of having created something with your own hands and imagining the moment of unpacking. This is certainly not just a wonderful moment for Susann.
In the end, and everyone agrees on this, “we want to forge rings that correspond exactly to their future couple, that will connect these two people forever and can tell many wonderful stories”.
Bronze, silver and gold… A handcrafted journey with goldsmith Susann Janensch
Our workshop at Leipziger Tapetenwerk is constantly evolving. Now also in terms of personnel. For a few weeks now, Susann Janensch, a blacksmith, has been supporting the production of our damask wedding rings at the workbench with a great deal of love and passion. After just a few days: a conversation about you, your life, your idea of jewellery and the difference between a goldsmith and a silversmith.
Our workshop at Leipziger Tapetenwerk is constantly evolving. Now also in terms of personnel. For a few weeks now, gold and silversmith Susann Janensch has been supporting the production of our damask wedding rings at the workbench with a great deal of love and passion. After just a few days: a conversation about you, your life, your idea of jewellery and the difference between a goldsmith and a silversmith.
Susann Janensch is actually a trained silversmith. She completed her training in a traditional monastery workshop near Koblenz. There she came into contact with the production of larger objects in particular. In the early years, she forged bowls, cups and candlesticks, for example.
“Essentially, that’s the big difference,” she explains. Silversmiths mainly produce bodyware and sacred artefacts. Goldsmiths, on the other hand, concentrate primarily on making jewellery.
In silversmithing, the shapes of the pieces are larger overall, so a special feel and sensitivity for the material is required to ensure that everything fits exactly in shape in the end.
After completing her training, she initially worked in a traditional goldsmith’s shop. She was already familiar with many things at that time, but “I had to learn everything that distinguishes goldsmithing from silversmithing,” recalls Janensch.
The work in the jewellery sector is often more delicate. It was a change for her at first. “Because silversmiths forge more, they have a greater sense of form and have to model much more often,” she reports. A goldsmith, on the other hand, usually has to bend and file their material more, build chain clasps etc. and measure the jewellery sizes.
Janensch had her first contact with the craft as a small child. As the daughter of a trained precision mechanic, she quickly became fascinated by precise and perfectly crafted jewellery. She still fondly remembers her family’s jewellery box, which fascinated her from an early age.
“As a teenager, I started making jewellery myself. Back then, I particularly enjoyed working with glass beads and shells. I also loved new and unusual things and tried to combine unconventional things,” says Susann Janensch, smiling happily.
After leaving school, she travelled to New Zealand and Scotland, spent a lot of time in nature and gardened in various places. Her love of nature and nature conservation has always been close to her heart and this connection to nature still accompanies her in her artistic work today.
“Especially the fact that gold is in great demand and therefore always in short supply makes 100 per cent environmental protection in my profession really not easy,” she says. But regardless of this fact, she tried to use sustainable materials right from the start.
She is delighted that the “Goldschmiedewerkstatt Joachim Bartz” has been working for many years with, among other things, river gold, which is extracted in an environmentally friendly way. “It further encourages me to think and act in terms of sustainability in order to protect the basis of life for all of us.”
In 2014, Susann Janensch won the state goldsmith and silversmith apprenticeship competition (Rhineland-Palatinate) with her journeyman’s diploma. In the same year, her journeyman’s piece was honoured as the 1st national winner in the silversmith training competition.
Janensch is always trying out new things and is not afraid to go down paths that she has never travelled before. She has already worked with fossils, Greek coins and small parts of musical instruments in her jewellery making.
If you talk to the craftswoman about all the ideas she has, you quickly realise what she is all about:
Her jewellery should be individual and always have something very personal about it. She therefore always focuses on the highest quality in her production.
“Jewellery should be an expression of your own attitude to life. It should delight people and enhance them. Working on jewellery is also something that delights me every day, something that touches me deeply and fulfils me.”
Before joining our workshop, she only knew damask from swords and knives. But when she heard about the workshop, her ears pricked up. “I’ve always been very inquisitive and I’m very happy to be able to learn new techniques here,” she says during an interview in the workshop. What do you find special about damask rings? “Definitely the fact that every damask ring is unique in its grain and therefore has a very individual value.”
Janensch finds the personal contact with customers and couples particularly fulfilling. Even when wrapping rings that have been worked on for hours or days, “I always experience a very fulfilling feeling, which is also accompanied by pride and a little excitement,” she says, nodding.
You hear about this joyful excitement again and again in the workshop: the feeling of having created something with your own hands and imagining the moment of unpacking. This is certainly not just a wonderful moment for Susann.
In the end, and everyone agrees on this, “we want to forge rings that correspond exactly to their future couple, that will connect these two people forever and can tell many wonderful stories”.