With the special anniversary edition of AUTOR #20, we celebrate 14 years of activity in the world of creative jewelry. The current AUTOR 2023 edition takes place on 6-7 May in the heart of Bucharest, here we honour the beauty of contemporary jewelry. For the first time, The Sense of Beauty Gallery founded by Diana Iordache is present on the international jewelry scene at AUTOR 2023. Diana is a huge jewelry lover. She founded the digital jewelry gallery The Sense of Beauty in 2021. For her, it meant a transition from her rich experience working in marketing for international brands to being a jewelry entrepreneur. Diana has cultivated her artistic talent, particularly in the area of acting, but also as a jewelry designer creating her own collection ,,Heritage”

We caught up with Diana about her professional development and the world of jewelry in the following interview.

1. Diana, in your adult life you have always worked in the field of beauty. Do you remember how you showed interest in beauty when you were a child?

I grew up with two boys around me, my brother, and my cousin, so I had some boyish behaviour as a child. I liked to play with tractors and cars, the first doll that my mum bought me scared me. I was climbing trees and doing all kinds of courageous contests that they were doing. Later, however, when I started school, I discovered new games: such as doing theatre performances with my girlfriends, where the greatest pleasure was to make the costumes using bed sheets, but also to prepare the artistic program: dance and music. I was passionate about ballet; I have been doing ballet since I was 7 years old and continued with it until later. I also discovered painting for which I really had a talent. Then followed long vacations in the countryside at grandma’s and trips to the Danube Delta where I connected with nature. I think I was a lucky kid who had various experiences that opened my eyes and made me curious.

2. After so many years of corporate life, you took the path of entrepreneurship after you moved from Greece to the Netherlands. What prompted you to make this change in your adoptive country?

I moved to the Netherlands for personal reasons. It was an important and hard-to-take decision because it totally changed my life. The idea of entrepreneurship gradually settled into me even before I left Greece. More than 10 years ago, I imagined a platform that would address independent designers, but then I did not have the courage and no resources to take the step. In fact, The Sense of Beauty is an old dream of mine that came true two years ago and materialised through an independent designer’s jewelry gallery, offering a curatorial collection of timeless designs. It works similarly to an art gallery with artists from all over the world, honouring the bond between the woman and her jewelry wardrobe through their vision and creativity.

3. You say you appreciate courage a lot. What other qualities do you think an entrepreneur needs to be successful? What about an artist?

I’m still in a learning phase as an entrepreneur, but I realise that, aside from courage, it’s important to trust yourself and the people you work with. Success is always a team result. Even when the team is just you, you are never alone in a business: you have collaborators, you have suppliers, you have partners and so on. It is very important to build a relationship based on trust and respect. I believe that a successful business also has a soul that feeds on the passion of its creator, it is “the reason why you do what you do.”

For artists, things are not much different, passion is the main engine for what they do, and I think that at some point everyone must discover their own style, “specialisation” or “identity” and continue to grow in that direction. Just as you look at a painting by Klimt and you know it’s Klimt, or a sculpture of Brâncuși. In both cases, whether we’re talking about an artist’s career or a business, I think patience is important. No career is built in a year and no business can reach success in a short period of time.

I also believe that artists need to be guided by experts when it comes to the way they promote their own brand. One man cannot do everything — there is no time — and rarely do they have the right expertise in the domain. Beyond being an international promotion platform, The Sense of Beauty gallery offers as well personalised services for brand consultancy to help them build an identity, a coherent image in all mediums, including social media, a digital presence through e-Commerce, or expansion plans across borders. I’m already working in this direction with some of the gallery’s artists and I realise the huge potential that lies behind a good marketing plan.

Diana Photo credit Andra Stefan resized

4. Although you were already busy in the corporate environment, you managed to finish a drama school. How did you integrate acting and what place does it occupy in your life?

Acting is a love story with a handsome prince. Although I used to play theatre when I was a child, I never considered it a possible career. I was very attracted to mathematics, to the exact sciences in general, and I even had a phobia for writing and literature, fuelled of course by the literature teacher who all she succeeded in her education was to make me believe that I was incapable. When I was asked to compose a poem at school, it was a real nightmare. I lived for a long time with the fear that I do not know and cannot express myself. I discovered acting by chance, I was living in Paris at the time. I started acting classes with the goal of perfecting my public speaking and so I discovered a door to my inner self. I realised that I have a lot of resources that have never been accessed. It was a personal development tool that literally gave me a voice, made me a better person and helped me regain self-confidence. So, I decided to keep it as a constant in my life: from the first theatre courses I did in Paris in 2005 to the Romanian Movie and Theatre Academy Exam in 2010 and finishing it in Greece in 2018. I’ve starred in plays in different languages and I’ve even done a short film. It’s a superb profession, but a complicated environment where it’s almost impossible to make a career. So, it remains a love story like in fairy tales with “once upon a time.”

5. The Heritage Collection started from a box of old jewelry from a friend’s aunt, from which you managed to create some remarkable pieces. What is your favourite and why

Although the piece from which the Heritage Collection starts was originally a golden one, I think I prefer the platinum-plated silver version of this collection. I find that it is much easier to wear and integrate into everyday outfits. I think that the ring and the bracelet can easily become those statement pieces that you don’t take off anymore. I love this aspect in a piece of jewelry. Although I have never been faithful when it comes to jewelry, I love it when I get attached to a piece, it almost becomes part of me.

6. You place great value on timeless pieces. How do you manage to identify them?

When choosing jewelry pieces, I consider those people who want to make a statement with their everyday choices. For me, it is the creative act that matters, I want the jewelry to be noticed, understood and, ultimately, to be worn. In the collection I am curating there are also simple, almost classic pieces that can be worn at any age, but which have a design that makes them special, unique.

For example, the jewelry with pearls and diamonds created by the Greek designer Dolly Boucoyannis. She uses classic, timeless materials such as gold, pearls, diamonds, but what makes them special is the way the artist puts them together, making them accessible for any age. The timeless jewelry is a pathfinder for me, it is the one that we easily purchase and will worn the most.

 

7. What news does this “AUTOR” edition bring?

At this “AUTOR” edition I have two designers from Greece and one from the United States, and each of them have complementary jewelry styles.

Dolly Boucoyannis, born and raised in Athens, Greece, has studied jewelry design in Great Britain before continuing her education in gemmology in the United States and goldsmithing techniques in Florence. Dolly’s work is inspired by nature and traditional Greek elements from various historical periods. She combines these influences with her knowledge of gemmology and goldsmithing techniques to create unique and beautiful pieces of jewelry. Her designs often feature a balance between textures, shapes and colours, resulting in pieces that are both visually stunning and wearable.

Theodora D. — is a Greek designer from Athens who embraces the originality and unique expression of the individual style. She has recently won the Best Designer of the Year prize in Inhorgenta Munich. She creates jewelry with shapes, volume, and contrasts. The selection curated by The Sense of Beauty includes both unique pieces with fluid shapes like those from the Flamenco collection but also simple lines that orbit around different concepts such as Milky Way or Full Moon.

Ausra Bankauskaite is Lithuanian born, New York-based jewelry artist. A few years after completing her studies in Jewellery Design and Metal-smithing at Vilnius Academy of Arts, she moved to New York in 2010. Since then, she has worked for various designers and artist studios in New York and has participated in group exhibitions in Canada, Portugal, Lithuania, USA. She creates contemporary pieces that bridge the worlds of art objects and jewelry based on two concepts: structure and functionality, which combine to create minimal modular jewelry pieces that can be worn in different ways.

8. You talk a lot about beauty. What’s the most unexpected place you’ve met it?

I was lucky enough to travel a lot in my life, to live in different countries and get to know other cultures. Beauty is everywhere and in everything and I admit that it nourishes me all the time. Nature is the one that always amazes me, calms me and charges me with joy, but I admit that the beauty you meet in people’s souls is more special.

The AUTOR 2023 anniversary edition curated over 60 jewelry designers from around the world. Contemporary jewelry comes to Romania at AUTOR. Stay tuned.