The work that German glass artist and jeweller Rena Jarosewitsch created during her stay in New Zealand continues to delight.
I bought a platter and a broach in the early 1990s, but at the time I was unable to afford the intricate small sculptural pieces she assembled. I recall seeing these at an exhibition at Masterworks in Auckland in 1994 – I bought a broach there since it was quite a bit cheaper. But recently I was delighted to spot several of her sculptures on the internet auction site TradeMe, and to bid successfully for several, for about the same price today that I paid for the broach in 1994. They are delightful pieces, and they will bring a lot of pleasure.
Born in Munich in 1962, Rena Jarosewitch studied glass design at the renowned glass institute in Rheinbach near Bonn. After graduating she visited New Zealand, and loved it so much she decided to emigrate here. In 1983 she established a studio at the Christchurch Arts Centre, and began to work in a variety of glass media. In 1989 she was commissioned to make the Erebus memorial stained glass window in St Matthews-in-the-City, Auckland. Other window commissions included the Air Force Museum at Wigram, Christchurch and the Housing Corporation building in Wellington, as well as for private houses and churches.
Rena also made slumped and fused glass platters and glass jewellery, as well as a range of small sculptural pieces of glass assemblages of pieces decorated using stained glass techniques. Her work was exhibited at galleries in Auckland and Wellington as well as Christchurch.
In 1995, Rena left New Zealand to return to Germany, where she trained as a goldsmith at Hanau am Mein, centre of Germany’s jewellery industry, and then served an apprenticeship as a jeweller. In 2003, Rena established Feinform gallery and studio in Frankfurt am Mein, where she shows her own work and that of other jewellers. The gallery website is http://www.feinform.de/ . The website does not suggest that she still uses glass in her work.
