Arijana Gadžijev

Slovanka, printed textile jewelry for body and home by Arijana Gadžijev

The Slovanka project is a collection of original printed textile jewelry inspired by Slavic folklore art, its plant patterns and motifs. In the context of research into typical flowers and other plants characteristic of a certain country within the framework of today's "Slavic" territory, original patterns were created, which, using the modern technique of printing on textiles and on geometric shapes of jewelry elements, revive the connection between the folk and the modern, between nature and man, from which man is increasingly distant. The message of the collection is the importance of awareness of folk cultural heritage, which in its simple but sincere way sings the praises of the beauty of nature and shows the (co)dependence between it and the individual. The jewelry is light and soft; it is composed of various geometric shapes. It can be modular and offers the possibility of arbitrary assembly and combination according to motifs or shapes, it can be worn as a necklace or brooch, or it can be hung or placed in space as an independent spatial element.

Arijana Gadžijev, M. A., is a textile designer and artist from Ljubljana, Slovenia. She is employed as an assistant at the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Natural Sciences and Engineering, Department of Textiles, Graphics Arts and Design. She works both independently and in collaboration with other designers and artists, taking part in solo and group exhibitions at home and abroad.

Since 2019 her main artistic medium is expressed through printed textile jewelry for body and home. In 2021 she received the BIGSEE International Product Design Award 2021 for the printed textile jewelrySlovanka. Her textile jewelry collections were exhibited at Textile Art Biennial BIEN 2021, Blickfang Wien 2021 at MAK –Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna, Slovenian Jewelry Week 2022, Milano Jewelry Week 2022, international traveling exhibition “On the move, jewels” in Enschede and Madrid. Her work was featured in Arte Y Joya Contemporary Jewellery Yearbook 2021/22 and 22/23. She is a member of Klimt02.

In her work she combines both manual and digital design techniques and likes to explore how the pattern works on a particular textile form, how it moves around a particular 3D object, how it fits into the seam and how it can visually change the image of the form. Coming from a textile design background, she thinks of jewelry as something soft and light. She also likes the idea of a product being versatile: as a necklace with a pendant, other times as a brooch, and sometimes as a wall decoration.