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Mari Käbin

Mari Käbin (b. 1958 in Tallinn)

1986 SAIE

I have participated in exhibitions since 1980 – now already in almost a hundred group and personal exhibitions.

I am interested in new techniques and materials. This is my professional adventure and game, which offers amusement. I have made jewellery of seashells and quarrystones, insects, fish, crabs, titanium and aluminium. I often cut and grind my stones myself. Usually I use silver and gold, adding colour with stones, enamel or oxidized titanium.

In my creation I am rather minimalistic than abundant. I am fond of timeless themes, such as birth and death, but the results are still optimistic and happy. I tend to be playful. In my personal exhibition held in 1996 I liberated jewellery from showcases and put them on the wall.

I have made mainly jewellery, but also medals and the badge of office of the Mayor of Viljandi. Brooches for the Mother of the Year are also my creation. I won the competition of the coins of Estonia and made a silver anniversary coin. I have given private lessons of the speciality, currently I am working as an art teacher.- In the book “A-Gallery. Estonian art jewellery gallery for 20 years” (2014


“In Ane Raunam’s words: She’s been an innovator all her life, be it techniques or materials. She’d use titanium and electrolysis way back in the Soviet times. Not to mention all those unlikely gems she manages to procure somehow. When the Tax Board asked her about all the peculiar invoices she’d been receiving, she only had to say she’s an alchemist and alchemists do strange things. Never has she scared away from trying something new. She had a great appreciation for seaside rubble stone, which she also managed to spread to yours truly. Even as a small child ferrying between Aegna and Tallinn, she’d craft many a piece from the stones. All she does, she does with dedication.” – Ane Raunam about Mari Käbin at the A-Gallery exhibition MEMORY CARDS (2019)

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