A jewel of the north
- Göran designs and creates silver and gold jewellery
- Kristallen, his uncle’s workshop, was where it all started
- He now teaches goldsmithing and stone polishing at Kristallen
Göran Söderström’s interest in jewellery making has always been there, since his teenage years. “The first time I really understood that silver and gold were ‘my materials’ was when I joined a course at Kristallen in Lannavaara, a workshop and company founded by my uncle. That week meant a lot to me, because I saw all the potential of working with metals,” he says. It was then that Göran started out in jewellery designing, making and stone polishing. A long apprenticeship awaited him after that, but he eventually succeeded in his goal of becoming a goldsmith. He now has his own workshop in Lannavaara, a small village located above the Arctic Polar Circle, where he designs and creates gold and silver jewellery with gemstones, as well as teaching stone polishing and goldsmithing at Kristallen.
Discover his work
INTERVIEW
That was just the beginning. I took a two-year course in silversmithing and jewellery making at Leksands folkhögskola, in the Swedish region of Dalarna. Then I attended the goldsmith school in Copenhagen, becoming a qualified goldsmith. I also practised at the renowned Juhls silver gallery in Kautokeino, northern Norway.
My workshop is located in Lannavaara, the small village where I was born. I opened it in 1998, but at that time I was working full time as a teacher at Kristallen. My own company became more active in 2006, and it still is.
Life! I am inspired by everything I do, trips I make, the people I meet, but also the nature I live in. Sometimes I find a nice stone and see what I can do with it. Some of my inspiration comes from Sami culture and traditions, which happens to be my cultural identity too.
I like to combine classic and innovative approaches, being a traditional goldsmith who creates wedding rings but also an artisan who designs totally different, unique things. For example, I find stone setting and filigree very interesting, but sometimes I cast jewellery out of a seed or a flower.
