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Romanian Jewelry Week 2020 was the first exhibition I ever took part in. Looking back now, it feels less like an event and more like a threshold.
The exhibition was meant to happen in February, but the pandemic changed everything. Restrictions, uncertainty, and fear pushed it to October, and for a long time it wasn’t even clear if it would take place at all. When it finally did, it felt fragile — almost improbable — as if it existed only because enough people refused to let it disappear.
In February, when I first decided to apply, I was certain about one thing: I would present InGherat. At the time, it was almost my only collection — a world built around claws, tension, and grasping forms. Vertebral was still just an idea, barely taking shape. By October, the lines had shifted. What I eventually showed was a mixture of both collections: InGherat and Vertebral, raw and unresolved, alongside a few statement pieces that felt openly provocative. At the center stood the feather necklace — a piece that carried much of the emotional weight of that moment.
I arrived overwhelmed. I didn’t know anyone from the contemporary jewelry world. I was surrounded by information, by radically different approaches, by strong artistic voices and intense energy. I felt small, exposed, unsure of where I belonged — or if I belonged at all.
And yet, that space became a place of connection. I met artists I would later call friends — generous, talented, complex people who shaped not only my understanding of jewelry, but my way of looking at creation itself. That first exposure taught me how much there is to learn, and how important it is to look at others’ work with curiosity rather than comparison.
When I look back now, I can see how much I’ve grown — in craftsmanship, but also in attitude. From a distance, some pieces might seem unchanged, but many of them have been refined, rebuilt, and rethought over time. What remained constant was the core impulse; everything else evolved around it.
Romanian Jewelry Week 2020 was the beginning.
The first time my work existed outside my hands.
The first time it was seen.
And from that fragile, uncertain start, everything else slowly followed.
