Gardens are places where we try to sculpt nature according to our own aesthetic ideas. With gardens it is the same as with jewellery. They are made for our personal pleasure. At the same time they communicate a clear message about our personal identity to the world.Whereas secret gardens live among us like something in a fairy tale, hidden from public view. In order to discover them we have to be ready for adventure, exclude our daily routine and open our senses. I think that plants take a special pleasure in growing in a secret garden.When you’re looking at Bettina Speckner’s jewellery you enter a secret garden. She gently tells us stories about a quiet life that all of us carry within us. In Bettina Speckner’s jewellery rock crystals grow just beside diamonds.Her pieces often have photographs for a starting point. The pictures Bettina Speckner chooses are timeless and quiet. They are transferred to zinc or enamel. This gives them more stability and at the same time, by way of their materiality, enforces the messages of their subjects.Bettina Speckner’s jewellery reminds me of still lifes in the way in which objects of everyday life with different meanings are combined to form a single image. “Still life“ in this case would also mean “quiet life“ as these are the moments she captures.Her jewellery invites us to perceive the beauty of a tiger’s eye. Apart from the few tigers‘ eyes that still belong to tigers today, there are millions of lithic tiger’s eyes in the world, in and outside of jewellery. But this stone is special. Because of its partnership with an enamel photograph it starts telling stories.The stories her jewellery tells may put you in a somewhat melancholic mood. Which isn’t the fault of the stories, though. They are about beautiful memories, the pleasure of collecting, or little moments of happiness. The melancholy derives from the knowledge that such moments usually cannot be arrested.Bettina Speckner invites us to realize and perceive this, to enjoy it, and of course to pin it on and carry it around with us forever. What a luck if you have the chance to do this!Karen Pontoppidan

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