MagmaLaB was born in 2012 from the creative union of two artists, Caterina Martinelli and Gaia Guarnieri. 

In 2014 they gave life to the Aquamadre project, aimed at exploring the creative potentials of reclaimed plastic materials, above all polyethylene terephthalate (PET).

In the following years the project consolidated and evolved, focussing on the design and creation of ‘contemporary jewels ‘.
The brand MagmaLab contemporary jewels - different by nature was thus born: handmade contemporary jewels, which are the result of research, testing and unique handcrafting.

 

Contemporary Jewels Different by Nature

This definition was born while we were setting up our solo exhibit “CONTRONATURA” at the Terre Rare gallery in Bologna. Having to describe our creations, we realized that the need to deconstruct the concept of “different” and “natural” was intrinsic to our true self, to our creativity and thus to our creative process as a whole. Our jewels are “different by nature” because we – the ones who create them – are “different” by nature. The material we use is “different” from those commonly used for making jewels and, being synthetic, it is the most distant possible from naturalness. But now Nature is mostly affected by humans and our attempt to recycle potentially polluting materials, preventing their dispersion into the environment, aims at focussing on how far we currently are from a bucolic concept of Nature and on how essential it is to remember that it is our choices that change nature every day. Everything is natural and, at the same time, it is not, just as differences exist only if faced with compliances.

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Contemporary jewels

created starting from unusual common materials, which dismantled the concept of ‘precious ‘. Jewels, intended as ornaments that are no longer indissolubly linked to the idea of preciousness and wealth, but rather to emotions, moods, eccentricities and different personalities. If in the past what was made of rare materials was considered precious, today green accessories, being the result of meticulous craftsmanship of materials in excess, which can be recycled with creativity, become precious as well.

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We asked ourselves how we would like to present MagmaLaB (which, after all, is us, Gaia and Caterina). And we are strange, ‘different’, someone would say. We make jewels with our hands. And we make them imagining them on other people, because we don’t wear jewels. And we make them with a strange material, a ‘different’ material, someone would say. But we study it, we process it, we transform and evolve it, creating projections of ourselves that become jewels, which tell that, in the end, nothing - or maybe everything - is different. And that’s the beauty of it. 
And it’s so natural.

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