Lapponia: Jewelry Art from Finland

The unique style of the designers Björn Weckström, Zoltan Popovits, Christophe Burger, and Pekka Hirvonen has been the creative imprint for the new collections of the Finnish jewelry manufacture Lapponia. They all share a mutual love for nature and its infinite source for shapes which they use as their inspiration for their jewelry and watch designs.

For this year's collection Björn Weckström has designed the diamond jewelry collection "Ciria", a name which evokes the image of stars that shine like diamonds on the night sky. The versatile "Water leaf" necklace clasp can be used with pearls as well as a brooch. To create a stark contrast a black steel wire can be attached to the clasp.

For many years Weckström has worked with Bernd Munsteiner, a precious stone cutter and designer. Their seamless co-operation can be seen in many works. New pieces in this year's collection are for example the sterling silver "Mountain rill" necklace and in the golden "Fiaba" necklace. "Mountain rill's" rock crystal and the icelike gleam of sterling silver symbolize the unstoppable force of the spring sun which melts the ice and rouses the nature from its sleep. The symbiosis of aquamarine and gold in "Fiaba" (Italian for myth) alludes to the shadow world of myth and mystique.

Several unusual models supplement the high quality watch collection, which now completes the Lapponia jewelry collection. For example Björn Weckström's "Golden Time" gold watch's spectrolite dial is hidden under a dynamic surface. In his new watches Zoltan Popovits looks at time from two different perspectives: On the one hand time is universal - the world keeps changing and natural phenomena occur with their own slow pace. But time is also personal - a relatively short moment in the here and now. In the "Oasis" watch these two elements come together: the dunelike shapes of the wristband end in an oasis, where the wearers can see their personal time in the dial. Pekka Hirvonen has designed two new watches, the sterling silver "Timepoint" and the "Golden moment" gold watch.

Lapponia presents its new collections at the fairs "Scandinavian Gold-Silver-Watches", August 25 to 28 and "International Jewellery London (IJL)", September 4 to 7. www.lapponia.com