THE JEWEL AS A SCULPTURE.

A SCULPTURAL CONSTRUCTIONS THAT CONQUERS THE BODY DELIBERATELY.

AIESTANKONA JEWELLERY ARE WEARABLE SCULPTURES.

HEAVY JEWELLERY BUT WELL-WEIGHTED . TO FEEL ITS WEIGHT IS THE HIDDEN PLEASURE.

In an increasingly digitised and robotised world,

in an era where perfection reigns, digital surpasses material reality and the prevalence of the human touch has diminished,

AIESTANKONA takes technique to the limit and transforms gold into a malleable state in which it responds to human breath.

AIESTANKONA is a contemporary jewellery brand created in 2007 by Ainhoa Estankona, designer and jewellery maker.

AI ESTANKONA works slowly and alone. She makes her jewellery pieces herself, one by one, by hand, in her workshop in Bilbao, using gold and precious stones of conflict-free and traceable origin.

AIESTANKONA makes very little jewellery, mainly exclusive pieces to order and, exceptionally, very limited editions.

AIESTANKONA works in this way because it allows it to get to know and establish a personal relationship with the customer, based on trust and absolute discretion.

AIESTANKONA is a project that respects people and the environment.

AIESTANKONA makes unique pieces that are born of intuition and unexpected discoveries in the manufacturing process.

AIESTANKONA lets chaos and intuition act. It experiments with the tension that arises from the clash between control and chance that sets imagination, emotions, feelings and thoughts in motion.

AIESTANKONA seeks beauty in imperfection and irregularity.

AIESTANKONA understands jewellery pieces as a free artistic expression in which it explores the synthesis of form, the condensation of expression and the conciseness of style.

AIESTANKONA finds inspiration in nature, art and the artistic expressions of primitive, prehistoric and ancient civilisations. His forms are organic, abstract and archaic.

"I don’t want to have the terrible limitation of those who live merely from what can make sense.

Not I. 

I want an invented truth." 

Clarice Lispector, "Água Viva"

A BIT OF CURRICULUM. 

Ainhoa Estankona graduated in Law at the prestigious University of Deusto, Bilbao.

In the following years, she worked as a lawyer at EITB, the Basque television and radio group, in the commercial law department, specifically in the field of intellectual property rights.

After those years, she wanted to go one step further and try to find a personal language, something that was only possible by setting up her own business, taking full responsibility for her work.

Fascinated by art, she decided to change. She moved to Italy and, following her passion, began her career as a jeweller.

In Florence she attended the goldsmith school "Le Arti Orafe" where she learnt traditional and contemporary goldsmithing techniques, an applied art that became her instrument of expression.

This was followed by years of work as an apprentice to various jewellers and in various jewellery workshops in Florence and other Italian cities.

To find and give voice to a personal language, in 2007, still living and working in Italy, she creates her own brand AIESTANKONA and takes on the responsibility of creating a company.

WORK.

I agree with what Virginia Woolf wrote when she explains what it is like to immerse oneself in the daily work.

THE WAVES. VIRGINIA WOOLF.

"Tomorrow I will dress slowly;

I will waste time talking;

I will smell a red rose;

I will lightly cross the veranda (moving as if I had a basket of eggs on my head), light a cigarette, put my writing-board on my lap;

and I will dive, like a diver, very cautiously, into the last sentence I wrote yesterday.

Then, after perhaps 20 minutes, I will see a light in the depths of the sea, and I will sneak up on it

... for our sentences are only approximations, a net cast over pearls of the sea which may vanish;

and which, when brought back to the surface, will be quite different from what

I saw underwater.”

AESTHETIC VOCABULARY AND STYLE.

I carefully study and follow aesthetic and artistic trends and let them influence me and then I interpret them in my own way.

I have my own style that embodies my aesthetic ideal. Detached from pre-established codes, I am a free and thinking creator.

IMAGINATION is my reality. The best compliment is to be asked, - how you manage to see things so differently?-.

I am a good watcher. I gather a lot of information. Images crowd my mind and come out unconsciously materialized in objects.

"It takes a quiet mind and cultivated eyes to discern the forms of nature. The profound sense of the mysterious beauty of the universe and also the sad beauty of human suffering." (Yūgen).

I have a very personal WAY OF LOOKING. I am very observant. I accumulate a lot of information, the images crowd my mind and come out unconsciously materialised in objects.

I don't have the feeling of having found a LANGUAGE.  I DON'T WANT TO EXPRESS A CONCEPT. Mine is a SENSIBLE COMMUNICATION, a series of feelings that I aspire to translate.

In essence, I intend to surprise, amaze and seduce.  

I believe that, if we are able to stop

- and we know how to observe deeply -

it leads us to Excellence.

I feel obliged to develop my aesthetics to the maximum in an almost poetic exercise.

Combining thought and work -

as if it were a single poetic act.

Oteiza.

IN THE WORKSHOP.

I concentrate, withdrawn in my studio, on persevering and silent work.

IT IS A SEARCH. It is the pursuit of something that is invisible to the intellect and evident to the intuition. The search for something unknown but which can only be identified by oneself. The CONQUEST OF THE PLASTIC LANGUAGE without which every good idea is useless.

This is a overwhelming situation. Also a challenge.

I get my IDEAS by working.

Originally the creative process is totally intellectual, the core, the origin, the essence of each piece of jewellery is an IDEA. There is a blind, unformed idea that incubates in solitude. There are preliminary sketches.

However, I am more INTUITIVE than intellectual and, even if I start with a preliminary sketch, it is never clear to me where the journey will end.

But the creation takes place during the working process, which is a consequence of the SLOW TIMES that research allows.

Later the original idea is transmuted, as I work with my hands, due to the careful and attentive perception I make of CHAOS and INTUITION.

If the work flows, it is because I PUSH IT, and this constant push comes from the conviction that it is something that will be done all my life.

I was certain that art was a representation of an idea or a thesis.

Experience has taught me to recognize and respect the autonomy of the object with regard to the author's intentions.

HANDMADE.

When I am working I like to have TIME to get lost, to become unsettled, to find and to get lost again as many times as necessary.

I want to allow myself TO THINK about every project. Finalizing each piece takes time. I WORK SLOWLY, GRADUALLY. And I need to do it well. 

If I have an idea and I like it and I want to develop it further, it should not be Time that decides when to break the train of thought. You can't go back, you have to be able to go all the way to the end.

I make FEW PIECES a year. For some, it can take months. I'm not interested in doing many pieces but in doing them with time. I need time.

I WORK ALONE because the creative touch is mine alone. It is what makes my WORKS UNIQUE.

I TAKE RISKS WHEN I DESIGN. My customers are looking for a goldsmith who is able to respond in a different way, with a different point of view.