Sabine Brandenburg-Frank and Egon Frank

The goldsmithery and jewelry factory of Dr. Sabine Brandenburg-Frank and Egon Frank is located in an imaginatively-remodeled country house in Meerbusch, near Düsseldorf, Germany. Their jewelry reflects the concept of joint effort and individual expression. It is meticulously handcrafted exclusively in gold and platinum. The two jewelry makers place particular emphasis on structural design and an exclusive language of shapes. "We work in a team and communicate with jewelry" says Sabine Brandenburg-Frank, explaining the continuous joint development of shapes with consummately precise workmanship.

The structural design and exclusive language of shapes have given jewelry by Frank an international reputation. The generous-sized garden around the house is the view during daily drafting work and offers insight into the natural richness of shapes. "But design doesn't stop at the drafting stage. Most pieces must be achieved by sophisticated technique. Ideas during the design process simultaneously encourage new manufacturing methods. And manufacturing is never just production, it is the history of the idea that we like to tell our clients about," is how the two jewelry designers clarify their view. Their work has been seen in many exhibits and has received some of the best of the top design prizes.

For Egon Frank, designing jewelry also means coming to grips with the resistance of the material. "An impossible project is an inexhaustible source of ideas. I used to want to completely dissolve the material, but the shape comes mostly from the hand and not from the imagination. The surface must be transformed in space. The resistance of the object that is to be created produces endless enjoyment in the work."

Frank, who at one time dreamed of becoming an architect, implements architectonic ideas on a small scale in his work. "I enter into conversation with people through my pieces of jewelry. A piece of jewelry is not a sculpture. It must be worn just as a house is inhabited. The original idea does not come to fruition until the person is in the communicative situation." Kph