Harvi Varkki (b. 1959 in Tallinn)
1988 SAIE
I made my first jewellery when I was thirteen. My materials were sheet of iron and piece of amber. I still have this pendant.
The next challenge was engraving of moulds of jewellery details into steel, without any preliminary knowledhe of the technology. Some of those were portraits. During the studies in SAIE the list of challenges became longer. I was very interested in metal casting, but there was lack of teachers and instructors. I had to experiment myself, basing on recommendations of dentist and monumental bronze casting.
My grandfather Toomas was a blacksmith, but I fell in love with ancient jewellery, mainly for the silver processing technique. My research of historical pearl strand was published in 2009 in the journal Eesti Arheoloogia (13/1). I plan to publish a paper about the production technology of historical krõlls (large silver-plate beads of a necklace) of Estonia.- In the book “A-Gallery. Estonian art jewellery gallery for 20 years” (2014)
“The life-flower is an ancient geometric symbol. It was first discovered in the ornamentation of Egyptian tombs and the walls of secret passageways of Indian pyramids. The geometry of the life-flower is the basis for the model of how light spreads. The necklace pendant “BirdManAngel” was inspired by the Viking god Heimdallr. The original pendant is from an ancient archeological find and is in Sweden. According to legend, the god Heimdallr travelled under the rainbow. He surely did other amazing feats as well. The details of the necklace were hand-modelled in wax and cast in silver.” – Harvi Varkki at the A-Gallery exhibition MEMORY CARDS (2019)
