Ioana Streza & Alex Burlacu

Contemporia

Jewellery maker

©Ioana Streza and Alex Burlacu

Creating wearable stories

Ioana and Alex became jewellery makers in 2012
They use the lost wax casting technique
Ioana is inspired by her seamstress grandmother

Ioana Streza and Alex Burlacu launched their jewellery brand, Contemporia, in 2014. She is an architect and landscape designer by training, while he graduated from the Polytechnic University of Bucharest, majoring in computer science. Ioana was the first to realise that jewellery making would suit her better than her initial career choice. She took contemporary jewellery classes and soon convinced Alex to join her on this new path. After learning the secrets of the craft from established jewellery makers David Sandu and Alis Lalu, Ioana and Alex's business flourished. Initially working out of their bedroom, they now have a studio in the house of Ioana’s grandmother, who worked as a seamstress.

Interview

©Ioana Streza and Alex Burlacu

©Ioana Streza and Alex Burlacu

How do you mix tradition and innovation in your work?: Contemporary jewellery represents an innovative approach to a craft that originated in ancient times: using techniques that are thousands of years old to create modern objects which are relevant to today's public. This way, our profession continues to exist in its traditional form.
What does the lost wax casting technique involve?: This technique involves the modelling of the jewellery pieces in wax at first in order to be later cast in silver or gold, or sometimes bronze. The wax disappears during the casting process (it is lost) and all we get in the end is the metal object, which we must then brush and polish.
What don't people always realise about your work?: They are not usually aware that, for the most part, the contemporary jewellery studio does not differ much from the jewellery workshop of the Middle Ages. The tools are almost the same, except that today some of them run on electricity.
How would you define what you do?: We like to think we make wearable stories. It is the story of the craft that reaches the person wearing our pieces. We create them with care and attention and this approach invests them with a positive vibe. We add a spiritual, human dimension to the objects we make.

Ioana Streza & Alex Burlacu are expert artisans: they began their career in 2012