Kalaf’s showcase

PERTH’S contemporary jewelers have been given a new outlet with the Katherine Kalaf Gallery in Cottesloe, a cross between a shop and a gallery holding its first exhibition which showcases 21 Australian artists.

Katherine Kalaf, who has also had a similar shop at Sydney’s Double Bay, is originally from Perth.

She said there was an increased awareness of contemporary design among the WA general public.

“Contemporary jewelry focuses not on the value of materials used but on testing techniques, shapes and materials,” Ms Kalaf said.

“I have had the vision to open this gallery for a long time and a lot of young talented Western Australian jewelers go overseas and develop names for themselves there, but are still unknown in their home towns. People interstate and overseas are more aware than locals.

“The industry needs to make itself dynamic and vital, and my job is to create an audience in WA.

“There was a period when selling beautiful jewelry was hard but now people seem to be interested in elegance again.”

Ms Kalaf said the jewelers on exhibition in her gallery were representative of a group of the most innovative makers of contemporary jewelry.

“They are the research and development arm of the industry. Ideas, techniques and images from these makers filter through and influence the mainstream, but these people are the cauldron where the ideas start.”

The gallery is part of a new retail and residential development adjacent to Napoleon and Jarrad streets in Cottesloe. Ms Kalaf designed the interior.

One of the artists exhibiting is Dorothy Erickson, a Western Australian who has been designing contemporary jewelry for 33 years and exhibiting internationally for 25 years, including in museums and galleries in Vienna, London and Malta.

Both Ms Erickson and Ms Kalaf taught jewelry courses at Curtin University in the 1970s.

Ms Erickson is releasing her Homage to Klimt collection at the Katherine Kalaf Gallery, a series of pieces based on paintings by Austrian painter Gustav Klimt.

“Having spent a lot of time in Austria in the last 20 years I became intrigued with his work and aspired to create a few small sparkling jewels in the spirit of Klimt,” she said.

“Then the project took on a life of its own and expanded over a hundred designs on favourite paintings such as The Kiss, Adele Bloch Baur, Expectation, Fullfillment and Kirche in Cassone.”