Design Jewelry and Accessories Magazine: Featured designer: Andreas Schiffler The German designer living in Spain

When I found myself browsing Andreas’s shop, I was immediately drawn to the beautiful and very modern looking designs of his jewelry.

His high quality designs reflect an imaginative mind and talented craftsmanship. I like the way he combines shiny with matt, straight lines with circles, gold with silver. His jewelry is classy and yet so modern.

- Tell me about who you are and where you live, where you studied, where your shop is, your workshop etc.
Andreas: “I am a German self-made jeweller with a part time life between Barcelona and Formentera; in both places a workshop, in both places a part of my heart.
I came to Spain in 1993 looking for new horizons after studying Metal Processing and Plasterer in Germany, and in Formentera I started to experiment with techniques and materials and I came into contact with a craftsman’s world.
I’ve learned Jewellery on my own with freedom and patience, always in direct contact and feedback with my clients.”

- How did you discover your passion and get started with it?
“Mother Nature gave me the first inspiration to create jewels with little things found in the forest and the sea, and the studies with industrial metal production, the technical support to develop my creativity. I remember that my first vocation test gave as a result I had skill for this.
So I guess it’s been really like developing who you really are, on one side.”

- Do you have a favourite material you work with? If yes, why?
“Silver and stones have been the main materials in my work. Silver, the noble humble metal, stones: the ancient earth tresors … I truly don’t know, can create a poem for you about this perhaps, but the fact is that I choose materials among my reach in a very intuitive way. Reason is not always working in the process.

- Could you describe the steps you take in designing and creating a piece?

“Well, I work with ideas, but my items are created in action, they are created at the working table. There’s a famous saying attributed to Picasso that goes something like “inspiration does exist and sometimes comes, but you’d better be at your workshop”. And I am very pragmatic, I don’t theorise.

- How does the place where you live influence your work?
“The place where I live influences my work the same way as the places I visit when I travel. Everything around me influences my work. I’m not particularly conscious of any special aspect. Let’s allow psychologists do their work, I prefer mine.”

- Which is your favourite ever item you created?
“That is hard to say, I have many favourite items that represent different moments along the last 20 years…”

- Who is your favourite designer and why?
“My favourite designer is nature, ever surprising, simple elements, functional, beautiful, endless combinations, cruel, tender, wise; everything.
A remarkable characteristic of my self-made condition is that I never paid much attention to the work of designers, especially during the first 10 or 15 years of my career. But if you want a name, one comes to my mind now: Michael Zobel, because of the way he uses and combines materials.”

“I have two workshops, one in Barcelona at La Casa de la Espiral, calle Asturias 78 Barcelona inside the Gracia neighbourhood; and another one in Formentera, where I work between June and September, selling my production at the Handicraft Market of La Mola.”