Von W
Jeweller
Alexandra Cardinal von Widdern designs and creates heirloom jewels in a blazing celebration of human imperfection. Forged in the raw and inclusive clubs of post Cold War 1990s Berlin, her deconstructed style as well as her design approach are uncompromising:
Her jewellery is handmade from recycled precious metal to become the canvas of your life story. By embracing the marks of everyday wear over time, these textured one of a kind treasures will increase their complexity and become precious objects of reflection and your own story telling. When you bequeath your piece to the next generation, it will layer and enmesh their story with yours and on through the ages.
Her pieces passionately resist computer designed, replicated and polished uniformity and are instead created in an intuitive process letting metal and fire determine shape and texture. The raw designs are adapted, shaped and often set with salt and pepper diamonds or coloured stones, curating and showcasing their beautiful imperfections as an allegory on us as humans. Designed and made in her small studio in the UK, she composes each jewel in the fervent desire to give you a precious, one of a kind heirloom to chart your life story in all its uniqueness.
Alexandra’s jewellery and process of creation are strongly rooted in philosophy, most of all in the Stoic mantra of letting go of control over all the things we cannot influence. The jewels themselves are made for your life in flux and rest on Heraclitus’ notion that you cannot step into the same river twice, because it is neither the same river nor are you the same (hu)man. Equally strong is the influence of Simone de Beauvoir’s argument that we can overcome societal constructs and curate our selves. Alexandra’s jewellery therefore invites and encourages you to do just that and to see each step as valuable on your path. Your heirloom will chart your self-curation and becoming over time when it naturally gains texture, polish or patina. Each process and event will shape your piece into one that is truly as rare and unique as you are.