Contemporary jewellery house created by Ainhoa Estankona.

Designer and jeweller, she founded her eponymous brand in 2007. 

AI ESTANKONA designs and makes her own pieces. On occasions, enlists the help and know-how of more experienced local goldsmiths and craftsmen.

The work is done responsibly, using 750/1000 gold and precious stones of conflict-free and traceable origin. 

The jewellery, unique pieces of fine jewellery, is handmade in Bilbao. 

The ARTISTRY,

consists of a juxtaposition of avant-garde design and the use of ancestral craft techniques for its materialisation carried out with meticulousness and attention to detail. And glamour.

The PHILOSOPHY behind the work is that of the traditional craftsman:

to propose artistic, unique and timeless jewellery that will be revalued over time and become a coveted family heirloom.

WHY, 

I have always had a peculiar and personal way of understanding jewellery.

It is my desire to make jewellery that touches me and that touches others.

And to look for something new.

But not to look for something "new".

But because this search is of great interest to me and fulfils me.

I create my world.

To break with the ways of doing things that we have internalised and to do it my way.

I believe in doing things "small". It has a very powerful value. It has much more truth because it is closer to the truth.

"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"

My artistic career has not been linear.

A coming and going of creative waves, of ideas sown in the past and sprouting suddenly years later. I overcame a coma I went into after a period of sadness and mourning. A long time passed without being able or wanting to create. Little by little time became another and so did the experience. I didn't know how to explain what happened. I kept on walking. It was my turn to learn how to build a life. 

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 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, after all the years of apprenticeship, 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 and a series of feelings that I aspire to translate.

It is a SENSITIVE COMMUNICATION. I don't have the feeling of having found a LANGUAGE. I DON'T WANT TO EXPRESS A CONCEPT.

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".

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 create 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 without collaborators, because although my technique can be learned by others, the creative touch is mine alone. It is what makes my WORKS UNIQUE.

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