A celebrated designer of contemporary jewelry and an acclaimed teacher of design, Swiss-born Johanna Dahm spent her childhood in South Africa and currently lives and works in Zurich/Intragna. Her work is characterized by an investigative and open approach, which has led her everywhere from quests for exotic jewelry techniques, to exploring light reflections and contemporary high-tech processes. Some of her early recognition followed the pin-less brooches she developed in the early eighties, a result of her interest in the connection between jewelry and clothing. In recent years, she has traveled to Ghana and India and returned with work borrowing the techniques of local craftsmen who were practicing ancient, much revered jewelry-making methods. Johanna Dahm is the recipient of numerous prizes and has exhibited her work extensively throughout Europe as well as Canada and Japan.
During her short stay at the JCVA over April of 2006, Johanna Dahm gave a workshop and a lecture at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design. Beyond presenting Jewelry Department graduate students with her own work, she took the further step of engaging with students' work, and offered an extremely valuable critique session.
Rings
These sculptural, solid gold rings with the sensuousness of natural forms, were made using techniques preserved by generations of master Ashanti jewelers from Ghana. The craftsmen used wax and clay molds that are destroyed after each pouring. Johanna Dahm shortened the process using contemporary technology, and created a 'lost-wax' technique. The rings are not the result of a positive wax model, but take on the form of the hollow left open in the molded clay casing. The unique result is only visible when the clay casing has been broken open after firing and casting. The rings, whose surface structure is determined by the roughness of the clay, fit wonderfully well around and between one's fingers. This is jewelry that remembers its own liquid moment and the process of its generation. Dahm leaves flaws untouched, and thus creates work that hovers between perfection and imperfection.
