Karin Seufert (Germany, 1966)
necklace, 2003
silver, glass beads, 22 cm diam
selected by Liesbeth den Besten
Once upon a time there was an artist by the name of Marion Herbst. She was born in Germany and grew up and lived in Holland. Her mother was a hatter and Marion became a jewellery artist. She was a remarkable woman, a phenomenon. She wanted to change things. Her jewellery was like her, adventurous, colourful, funny, and self-confident. She died much too young after a long illness. In the years before her death she began using glass beads. Some years later her husband came across Karin Seufert’s work and read a text of hers about her fascination with beads. After doing some research and discovering that he, Karin and Marion had more things in common, he decided to present her with a box of items that had once belonged to Marion: beads, stones, Swarovski crystals, pearls, semi-finished products, medallions, and so on. He explained to her that he had been on the lookout for someone like her since Marion’s death in 1995, someone who could make “just beautiful little things” from it, as Marion would have said.
So Karin was given this box filled with contents that were simply begging to be used. Among them, unfinished components made by Marion herself – not exactly easy to handle. Yet Karin felt the obligation implicit in the gift to give back something and to keep the gift moving. Once she understood this, she was able to work with the material. This necklace is one of the first results. It is closely connected with Marion; the coloured fragments are made by her. The white parts finish a piece that might have been conceived like this. Since then, Karin has loved working with found objects which bear the marks of their lives, building new stories around them.
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