PHOTOGRAPHY: HUDSON HAYDEN WRITER: CARAGH MCKAYDIEZ AT HER MUNICH STUDIO.
‘I LIKE IT WHEN A PIECE
I DESIGN LOOKS EFFORTLESS,’
SHE SAYS. ‘SOMETIMES THIS
IS THE RESULT OF A LONG
PROCESS, SOMETIMES YOU
KNOW RATHER QUICKLY
HOW TO REACH THAT’‘Every piece has its own story: what did I mean to do?
What do I want it to tell you? What did I put into it?
What does it mean to you?’ says Munich-based Saskia
Diez of her design methodology. ‘The thing I love about
designing jewellery is the different levels you have to
consider from the outside in. Everything that happened
on the way to make it, everything that lead to you
achieving it. All of it is summed up in the final piece.’
While such precision-thinking belies her traditional
training at a local goldsmith’s workshop, it also proves
that Diez’s decision to forego the jeweller’s bench for
the rigours of commercial design and stints at
Konstantin Grcic and Christian Haas was a wise one.
‘I was lucky because the goldsmith’s atelier was one ofWhat the Munich-based product and jewellery designer Saskia Diez did nextthe few where you learn to do pieces from scratch and
master all the techniques. Still, I knew I wanted to
address a larger audience, which is hard when you do
one-of-a-kind pieces as a goldsmith.’
As a product designer, Diez offers a careful edit of
men’s and women’s accessories, including jewellery,
sunglasses and light-as-air recyclable synthetic ‘paper’
holdalls and rucksacks for husband Stefan Diez’s label
(see W*137) that have become something of a classic
in her own lifetime.
Her jewellery design, characterised by a combination
of strong, oversized forms and a serene lightness of
touch, is just as precise and honest. ‘You usually get
what you see,’ Diez offers. ‘When it is silver, it is done »Germany
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The long view