Aino Kapsta (b 1935 in Saaremaa)
1961 SAIE
I graduated from the speciality of jewellery in 1961; since then I have participated in exhibitions home and abroad.
As a freelance artist, in the first decades I could use only copper, brass, bronze and iron in my creation. I used many quarrystones and semi-precious stones. Of various techniques I have used inlay, melting, enamel, granulation, embossing, forging etc. Precious metals appeared in my works in 1992. Freedom in the use of materials offered a possibility to create large massive jewellery with bold form and exciting surface treatment.
Memory of old times brought filigree technique back to my creation. In 2010 I held my personal exhibition FILIGREE FEELING, where I played with different form solutions. I have a restless nature and search constantly new possibilities and outputs for realisation of my ideas. – In the book “A-Gallery. Estonian art jewellery gallery for 20 years” (2014) Aino Kapsta
“I make traditional Estonian-style brooches (sõlg). Inpsired by Estonian brooches, yet in filigree. I wanted to make some for an exhibition once, but I got sick and I never made them. But then I thought I’d finish them; some of the patterns were already crafted. I have not always made filigree, life has been so long that I’ve tried making everything. I decided to start making filigree on my 75th birthday, which was 10 years ago. I’ve made a lot of techniques like enamel, but you can’t exhibit everything at once.
You couldn’t make anything in silver during the Soviet era, but making with copper kept you alive. I made a big set of gold jewellery through ARS. I even went to Riga to meet the client, who I believe was a commander in the Baltic military. I was taken there by limousine; it was a fun ride. It was also hidden, not advertised, it went directly to Moscow. I don’t know how official it was, or how much was documented. Officially I didn’t make gold during Soviet times, it was so complicated. There were a lot of orders for copper and there have been many exhibitions. One exhibition official said that at one particular show in London, where copper work was on display, the Queen of England had wanted to buy something for her daughter, but she was told that art belongs to the people and cannot be sold to her.” – Aino Kapsta at the A-Gallery exhibition MEMORY CARDS (2019)
