A HOME FOR OUR JEWELRY
THE MAKING OF OUR BAIUSHKI STUDIO
A little over four years ago we brought our BAIUSHKI studio to life. From concept to creation, we designed and built everything on our own (with the help of a few good friends). It took us four months and over four tons of wood until our dream space was realized. Read along below as we take you with us on the journey of what creating a home for our jewelry was like.
It all started when the space at Feldbergstrasse 37 in Basel was in need of a new tenant. That was the moment where we suddenly knew that this was the perfect time to build our own studio. Not just a studio, but our dream studio. Not only a place to showcase our jewelry designs, but a place we envisioned we could work in, a place that we could invite customers in to experience our world of BAIUSHKI. A place that would feel like a sanctuary, a haven that would evoke a calm and serene feeling for all who would enter.
FROM INTENTION TO INSPIRATION
We went through quite a process before coming to the final concept for every detail of our studio. While we vetted many different ideas, materials and layouts for the space, what was clear to us from the start was that we wanted something which would be the perfect canvas for our jewelry. It was important to us that the space should reflect the forms of our jewelry designs and also be reflective of nature including organic forms, imperfect lines and natural colors and textures. In total from start to finish, it took us four months to design, build and create our studio, all the while we had to keep the day to day business running as usual. Needless to say, we not only spent long days working on our studio but many nights too!
NATURAL MATERIALS
Because the emphasis on nature was so important to us, we decided to work with natural materials. To cover our walls, we chose a clay plaster which is made of sediments of stone. What we love most about this material is that the clay plaster actually makes the space more breathable and * can absorb toxins from the air. Visually, it is aesthetically calming and evokes a peaceful feeling, just as you would have as spending time in nature. It took a lot of effort and time to cover all of our walls with this natural material from laying the foundation to applying layers of the plaster. To cover our furniture, we used a similar natural stone plaster. We found treasure when we discovered where to source off-cuts of raw stones which we use today for displaying our jewelry pieces.
BUILT BY OUR HANDS
All of the furniture in our studio was designed and built entirely by us. Round and curved tables for showcasing our jewelry, long floating shelves, a built in curved bench, and our working atelier was all concepted and crafted by us. It took four tons of wood to create all of the furniture and when it was delivered it arrived all at once, so we hardly had any space to keep it while actively having to build out furitnure at the same time- it was quite chaotic! And did we mention that we had to carry each piece of wood one by one into our studio (in the rain) because the delivery dropped the shipment off down the street.... These were some of our fondest memories of the entire process (only kidding)!
THE ATELIER - WHERE BAIUSHKI JEWERLY TAKES SHAPE
One of our favorite parts about our space is the atelier. It's a space where we work and create together as a team. Most importantly it's where the very inception of our jewelry takes place, by Lea working with her hands creating wax molds of each jewelry design. It was important for us to integrate a working space into our studio and showroom as we felt it was important to take our customers along the process with us. To give our clients a glimpse of how and where their jewelry is designed and crafted was a key element in the design of our space. It can be an untidy space, in contrast to the clean and calm feeling of our showroom, but it's authentically us. We even built in a curtain section that can separate the atelier from the showroom incase we need more working privacy (or what we really mean is in case things get too messy). The atelier is complete with a wooden pegboard we made which holds all of Lea's tools in an organized way.
