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Katerina Pimenidu Handmade in the Netherlands About the Work: "The metals used for the jewellry are either recycled or Certified Fairtrade. All the pearls from my collections come either form farms that follow sustainable ways of production or from small, family run ones. More specifically, the round Tahitian pearls come from an organic farm in Tahaa island in French Polynesia, the keshis and baroques come from a small family run pearl farm in the amazing island Manihiki, in The Cook Islands and the freshwater ones fly to me directly from a family farm that has been in the pearl business for more than 20 years and they are located the city of Shanxziahu in China. I strongly believe that ethical processes and slow methods will soon become the only way we approach production, consumption and life. Only by respecting each other and by supporting the small and local we can grow a bigger future. " |
About the Artist:
Katerina Pimenidu studied architecture at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki from where she graduated with distinction in 2006. She also holds a Master of Science with distinction from the Technical University of Athens, under the title “Architecture – Spatial Design”. Katerina has collaborated with architectural and interior design offices in Greece with their work being published in Greek design magazines. She has participated in several national and international competitions and has been a Teacher of Design at Thessaloniki’s Institute of Vocational Training. Alongside her architectural activity, Katerina attends the “Goldsmith School of Stemnitsa” in Greece and in 2014 she founds her namesake jewellery brand Katerina Pimenidu Jewellery. She takes part in several exhibitions with her pieces being featured in the Ilias Lalaounis Jewelry Museum in Athens. Katerina has won several prizes and awards in international and national design competitions (Kosmima, A Jewel Made in Greece), including the 1st place in the “Young Designers Corner” in 2015 in Munich, for her “Floating Pearl” Collection. Since 2016 she lives in The Netherlands where she works as an interior and jewellery designer, creating collections and commissioned pieces.
My interested in pearls emerged in 2012, during my jewellery studies and as personal challenge to 'reinvent' pearl jewellery and transform them into design pieces. After exploring with pearls and forms for a couple of years, I realized that my initial interest could be successfully transformed into something that can fit my design aesthetic. Since then, combining my architectural - sharp and clean - origin with the soft and organic nature of the pearls became the core of my design identity and a field that will never stop to inspire me.
Katerina was featured in Pistachio's winter 2021 exhibition 'Reinventing the Pearl' alongside Kelly Jean Conroy, Brooke Marks-Swanson, Rho Tang, Nora Tengely, and Billie Theide
