Cross a keen interest in industrial design with a flair for objects personal, relatable, wearable. Add to this a dash of art history and a commitment to minimalism and you get the creations of Pender Harbour designer Karen Konzuk. She creates unique and lovely jewellery and objets d’art fashioned with an everyday architectural and industrial medium: concrete. Using other unusual materials, Konzuk employs the commonplace (stainless steel) and the precious (diamond dust) to form her popular collections of rings, bracelets, earrings, and necklaces.
Konzuk’s Household Collection and Orbis Series grew out of the popularity of the jewellery and the inevitable flaws that were surprisingly appealing.
“The Orbis collection was inspired by a jewellery collection (also called Orbis) I had created quite a few years ago. It consists of concrete spheres that are cast in molds. As is the nature of concrete (much to my dismay), not all of the spheres would come out perfectly when cast. Flaws such as raw, half-filled spheres were the result, and I always found them beautiful in their own way. The idea to take these flawed spheres to a larger scale as a vessel was the start of the Household collection. The hardest part was to figure out how to get the raw edges with every casting!”
Achieving such fine work with a material more commonly used in massive blocks required some rethinking of the traditional methods she had studied. (Konzuk is a graduate of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design.)
“The vessels are still cast in molds but have to be hand-formed into them and the edges smoothed to as fine a thickness as possible. How they come out of the mold is the final product, making each piece unique.”
The vessels and candles, perfect for tea lights or succulent plants, are also compelling as stand-alone art objects. They have a lovely weight in the hand, yet call to mind the fragility of eggshells. The cool contemporary colours like Natural Grey, Charcoal Grey, and Coal Black help emphasize the elemental roundness and pitted texture of these austere yet tactile and friendly objects.
Konzuk works from a home studio in Daniel Point, where she can recharge and tweak her work/life balance by simply stepping out the door. She is also grateful for the support and expertise of her husband, brand manager Dwayne Dobson, who is responsible for naming the collections.
“Each collection has a starting point of inspiration. For example, the Stellar Collection is inspired by the amazing night sky we see here on the Coast. The use of diamond dust in the black concrete is meant to mimic the stars in the sky. Each piece is also named after a constellation or specific star that shares similar characteristics of the design. It is his favourite part of the branding, I think. As soon as I have a body of work, he is thinking of the name!”
If you find yourself drawn to Konzuk’s work, you are in good company.
“We have found museums stores such as the Guggenheim and Chicago Art Institute to be our main customers as far as retailers go. Individual customers tend to live in major cities such as New York and Los Angeles.”
