Luminous surfaces: Ina Beissner’s James Turrell-inspired jewels

Ina Beissner’s delicate designs – careful constructions of fine lines and discreet diamond details – are a fusion of her fascination with modernist architecture, a Latin American love of glamour and her mother’s own artworks. The jewellery designer’s creative education is almost as multifarious as her background. Born to a Dominican mother and a German father, she grew up between South America and Germany, studying fashion at ESMOD Berlin, followed by jewellery design at IED Milan.

‘A huge and constant source of inspiration has always been my mother, the artist Altagracia Carrasco,’ Beissner explains. ‘Her personality, her style but also her sculptures and paintings. She is always pushing the boundaries between minimalism, abstraction and volume, letting the material do the talking – be it bronze, marble or wood.’ When she was a child, Beissner visited a goldsmith with her mother, where the artist would melt down her old jewellery and reform it according to her own designs.

Beissner’s choice of material is more singular. Handmade in Antwerp, her pieces are wrought exclusively in 18-ct gold and tiny diamonds are served with subtlety: studding the inner rim of a pair of slim gold hoops, or speckling the head of a pin-closed bangle.

The jeweller’s work is attentive to femininity – and even, in her words, ‘vanity’ – but it’s her aesthetic education in contemporary art and architecture that informs her modern and minimalist forms. While she quotes Rem Koolhaas’ work at his studio OMA as an inspiration, her latest collection – dubbed LUA – is inspired by James Turrell’s experimental light installations. ‘In particular the way light comes out of the interstitial spaces within his luminous surfaces,’ she explains. With such careful conceptualisation, what ensues is an ultra wearable line, imbued with subtle luxury.