Atelierele UpO - Romania
Atelierele UpO
Designer biography:
My participation as a jewelry designer takes place under the umbrella of UpO Studios, the place where I trained and grew over the past 15 years. I graduated from the High School of Music and Fine Arts (Painting department) in Alba Iulia, and subsequently completed my studies in Cluj-Napoca at the University of Art and Design, specializing in Fashion Design, followed by a Master's degree in Textile Design. The theme of my Master's degree was recycling—starting with textile recycling and expanding to include other recycled materials. After finishing my studies, I founded UpO Studios, which focuses primarily on the upcycling process—giving new life to numerous pieces of jewelry, accessories, and clothing collections created from old items. UpO Studios is a workshop in Cluj-Napoca open to the public for creation and recreation through art, all through the modern lens of recycling. Collaborating with several companies in Cluj, I have created numerous collections of jewelry, accessories, and art objects from their waste materials.
Collection concept:
PARAdox collection, an attempt to find balance through the fusion of multiple extremes by combining Tribal and Industrial styles, blending the organic with the inorganic, transitioning from large to small, and merging the new with the old—all together in the same place, bold and loud. Every piece of jewelry starts with an old object discovered in nature or at flea markets, around which I build using brass to represent the new, alongside organic elements like semi-precious stones, shells, pearls, wood, bone, seeds, beans, and gourds. The result is a collection that people have often described as looking like the jewelry of an alien tribe from another planet.
