The closeness to nature remains: Portrait with goldsmith Marcel Gorzawski
Goldsmith Marcel Gorzawski is a friendly, young person. At first he seems a bit shy, yet he radiates with openness and joie de vivre. Training as a craftsman was not actually the plan after leaving school. Nevertheless, he will start an apprenticeship as a goldsmith a few years later. A portrait of an open-minded person …
Goldsmith Marcel Gorzawski is a friendly, young person. At first he seems a bit shy, yet he radiates with openness and joie de vivre. Training as a craftsman was not actually the plan after leaving school. Nevertheless, he will start an apprenticeship as a goldsmith a few years later. A portrait of an open-minded person who found his passion through several stages.
It is a sunny afternoon in early June in Leipzig.
A pleasant and cooling breeze is blowing through the Karl Heine Canal, not far from the small damask ring workshop in the Leipzig wallpaper factory. Marcel approaches the table and sits down.
Even as a child, he says, he always liked to tinker and make things. “At first only with Lego, later a lot with wood and other materials,” he reports. As he talks, he keeps glancing slightly up at the sky. As if the images were passing before his inner eye.
Even at school, he noticed how much he enjoyed working in the workshop and solving complex problems. For the seminar work during his Abitur he occupied himself a lot with LandArt and sculpture. He also immersed himself in bionics, the link between biology and technology.
After graduating from high school, Marcel Gorzawski begins his studies in biology. “I was fascinated by large marine animals,” he says.
His favorite animal? “Definitely the shark. A special and, above all, consistent kind of animal.”
Consistency is a word you hear from Gorzawski all the time. He loves nature and its permanence and strives for aesthetics and longevity. But as before, no paths seem to be marked out in his life.
For the coming years are to offer rather little permanence. Marcel has been a member of the theater club since his school days, works in the cinema in the meantime and plays with the idea of becoming a carpenter.
“At some point at university, I realized that I wanted to work in the trades. I want to be creative. I want to create and design.” That’s how he describes his thoughts from back then today.
“Today that sounds simple, but back then I was surrounded almost exclusively by academics and a pure craft education seemed somehow far away,” he recalls today.
Nevertheless, Marcel Gorzwawski decides to go new ways. He goes to Pforzheim and begins an apprenticeship as a goldsmith. He is inquisitive and describes his time there today as a “constant process of improving my work”. The time in the goldsmith city will be formative for Marcel. He becomes acquainted with a wide variety of working methods and materials and soon realizes that many in the industry work very similarly.
After two years, Gorzawski completes his training and is now looking for an apprenticeship. A friend draws his attention to a small Leipzig company that specializes in making wedding rings with Damascus steel.
“Sure I knew damascus and I had also marveled at it in rings. But the way damask was used at Joachim’s, this filigree, I had not discovered anywhere before.
If you ask goldsmith Joachim Bartz today about his memories of Marcel in 2018, you get a clear answer. “Marcel has worked in our damask ring workshop with dedication and attention to detail from day one. Since then, we have worked together almost daily, hand in hand, and we always get creative together as well.”
For Gorzawski, damask was the deciding factor in coming to Leipzig. “I didn’t want to make just any rings.
What else fascinates him about the material? “To this day, I am always amazed at what is possible with damask”.
It is the durability of the material, the fine grain that makes damask so special and ensures that no two rings are alike.
And what has remained of the biologist Gorzwaski?
Definitely the closeness to nature.
The commonality between damask and nature, the goldsmith says, is regularity with irregularity, such as in a honeycomb.
“Particularly the appreciation of our finite resources play an important role in our work,” Gorzawski indicates.
“For example, we have been using tissue paper instead of plastic packaging for many years. We do not purchase any preliminary products, such as blanks, sheets or plates, thus saving transport distances.” These are just a few examples that workshop manager Bartz can give on the subject of environmental protection.
However, one particularly important point still burns under the nails of both of them.
“For many years, we have relied on German river gold for our damask rings,” says Gorzawski.
Joachim Bartz adds further, “this not only saves us unnecessarily long transport routes but also reduces the use of environmentally harmful substances.”
This is because, unlike conventional fair trade gold, German flux gold is still mechanically separated. This process is not only more natural, but moreover does not rely on toxins, such as zianite or mercury, from the more common creation.
Especially in light of his love of nature, this fact makes goldsmith Gorzawski happy.
“Not only do I have the great fortune to be able to be creative every day and forge wonderful jewelry for couple. At the same time, I also know that we do everything we can here to ensure that our profession succeeds in the most environmentally friendly way possible. When I wrap rings, I take another deep breath and imagine that moment of unpacking them together. That makes me happy. Knowing that’s something lasting that can bond two lovers forever.”
The closeness to nature remains: Portrait with goldsmith Marcel Gorzawski
Goldsmith Marcel Gorzawski is a friendly, young person. At first he seems a bit shy, yet he radiates with openness and joie de vivre. Training as a craftsman was not actually the plan after leaving school. Nevertheless, he will start an apprenticeship as a goldsmith a few years later. A portrait of an open-minded person …
Goldsmith Marcel Gorzawski is a friendly, young person. At first he seems a bit shy, yet he radiates with openness and joie de vivre. Training as a craftsman was not actually the plan after leaving school. Nevertheless, he will start an apprenticeship as a goldsmith a few years later. A portrait of an open-minded person who found his passion through several stages.
It is a sunny afternoon in early June in Leipzig.
A pleasant and cooling breeze is blowing through the Karl Heine Canal, not far from the small damask ring workshop in the Leipzig wallpaper factory. Marcel approaches the table and sits down.
Even as a child, he says, he always liked to tinker and make things. “At first only with Lego, later a lot with wood and other materials,” he reports. As he talks, he keeps glancing slightly up at the sky. As if the images were passing before his inner eye.
Even at school, he noticed how much he enjoyed working in the workshop and solving complex problems. For the seminar work during his Abitur he occupied himself a lot with LandArt and sculpture. He also immersed himself in bionics, the link between biology and technology.
After graduating from high school, Marcel Gorzawski begins his studies in biology. “I was fascinated by large marine animals,” he says.
His favorite animal? “Definitely the shark. A special and, above all, consistent kind of animal.”
Consistency is a word you hear from Gorzawski all the time. He loves nature and its permanence and strives for aesthetics and longevity. But as before, no paths seem to be marked out in his life.
For the coming years are to offer rather little permanence. Marcel has been a member of the theater club since his school days, works in the cinema in the meantime and plays with the idea of becoming a carpenter.
“At some point at university, I realized that I wanted to work in the trades. I want to be creative. I want to create and design.” That’s how he describes his thoughts from back then today.
“Today that sounds simple, but back then I was surrounded almost exclusively by academics and a pure craft education seemed somehow far away,” he recalls today.
Nevertheless, Marcel Gorzwawski decides to go new ways. He goes to Pforzheim and begins an apprenticeship as a goldsmith. He is inquisitive and describes his time there today as a “constant process of improving my work”. The time in the goldsmith city will be formative for Marcel. He becomes acquainted with a wide variety of working methods and materials and soon realizes that many in the industry work very similarly.
After two years, Gorzawski completes his training and is now looking for an apprenticeship. A friend draws his attention to a small Leipzig company that specializes in making wedding rings with Damascus steel.
“Sure I knew damascus and I had also marveled at it in rings. But the way damask was used at Joachim’s, this filigree, I had not discovered anywhere before.
If you ask goldsmith Joachim Bartz today about his memories of Marcel in 2018, you get a clear answer. “Marcel has worked in our damask ring workshop with dedication and attention to detail from day one. Since then, we have worked together almost daily, hand in hand, and we always get creative together as well.”
For Gorzawski, damask was the deciding factor in coming to Leipzig. “I didn’t want to make just any rings.
What else fascinates him about the material? “To this day, I am always amazed at what is possible with damask”.
It is the durability of the material, the fine grain that makes damask so special and ensures that no two rings are alike.
And what has remained of the biologist Gorzwaski?
Definitely the closeness to nature.
The commonality between damask and nature, the goldsmith says, is regularity with irregularity, such as in a honeycomb.
“Particularly the appreciation of our finite resources play an important role in our work,” Gorzawski indicates.
“For example, we have been using tissue paper instead of plastic packaging for many years. We do not purchase any preliminary products, such as blanks, sheets or plates, thus saving transport distances.” These are just a few examples that workshop manager Bartz can give on the subject of environmental protection.
However, one particularly important point still burns under the nails of both of them.
“For many years, we have relied on German river gold for our damask rings,” says Gorzawski.
Joachim Bartz adds further, “this not only saves us unnecessarily long transport routes but also reduces the use of environmentally harmful substances.”
This is because, unlike conventional fair trade gold, German flux gold is still mechanically separated. This process is not only more natural, but moreover does not rely on toxins, such as zianite or mercury, from the more common creation.
Especially in light of his love of nature, this fact makes goldsmith Gorzawski happy.
“Not only do I have the great fortune to be able to be creative every day and forge wonderful jewelry for couple. At the same time, I also know that we do everything we can here to ensure that our profession succeeds in the most environmentally friendly way possible. When I wrap rings, I take another deep breath and imagine that moment of unpacking them together. That makes me happy. Knowing that’s something lasting that can bond two lovers forever.”