Jewellery designer Kasra Rabiei of Lojë Gold Gallery on creating in the Fine Metals + Jewellery Studio

Jewellery designer, Kasra Rabiei of Lojë Gold Gallery, is one of Launchpad’s earliest members, joining the community in November, 2018.

He started making and designing jewellery in 2012 after graduating from university. Since most of his mother’s family members were in the jewellery business, it seemed like a natural progression. His grandfather owned the gold gallery for 30 years and Kasra helped him with sales and selecting products, where he became enthralled with jewellery design and working with beautiful precious metals.

“I learned goldsmith and jewelry at college in my country from the top goldsmithing masters,”, says Kasra. “And I also learned a variety of skills and techniques by spending a year with the best goldsmith students as they were preparing for the Worldskills International Competition.”

As an artist, Kasra tries to capture, interpret and represent beauty as he sees it in his work. Besides jewellery, he also focuses on the human figure and minimal subjects which he says both represent grace and beauty in nature.

“I am captivated by the human form and I merge that with jewellery; in the way that the merging of gesture and craft and the fine art of jewellery making can speak to us,” recalls Kasra.

“I am guided by my inner vision, the properties of the material and my emotions. Oftentimes inspiration comes to me only after I’ve begun to carve a piece.”

Kasra works in precious metals like sterling, gold and copper, and different kinds of precious stones like turquoise, opal, citrine, emerald and moissanite. He also uses  the “graceful and harmonious flow” of square wire, particularly when working with the human form or other fine forms of art.

“In the metal pieces, I often leave part of the metal without carving and unpolished, in its natural rough form, to create a textural contrast with the carved and polished figure, often emerging with stones,” explains Kasra.

In the Jewellery and Fine Metals Studio, Kasra is a valued member of the community and was one of the first people to return to the studio during Launchpad’s reopening after the COVID-19 closure.

“I enjoy working in the Fine Metals and Jewellery Studio environment at Artscape Daniels Launchpad for so many reasons: socializing and sharing ideas and techniques with other members and studio technicians; moreover the facilities and machines there,” explains Kasra. “[The Fine Metals + Jewellery studio] makes the process of creation more enjoyable for me.”

To see more of Kasra’s work, follow him on Instagram @lojëgoldgallery.