Visiting W.KRUK manufacture and a competition for Magpie

Together with Fashionelką, StyleDigger, StyleOn, Pattines and Outdersen we visited W.KRUK manufacture. I will tell you today, Magpie, what we have learned about trinket production from the oldest jewelry brand in Poland.

Visiting manufacture

We’re here. In front of us there is a large old school building. We’re coming inside – Magpies and ravens (Kruk means raven) say hello, we get to meet  W.KRUK head designer – Aleksandra and technologist Piotr – absolute chatterbox who tells us with great passion about his work. He introduces the employees (some of them are celebrating their 35th anniversary of work this year) and shows us the factory from the fifties.

Did you know that before the factory merged with the W.KRUK  brand it was called Rytosztuka? It was famous for patterns referring to the art deco style – that is jewelry in geometric forms. I will tell you that when I returned home I asked our Magpie grandmother, whether in her jewelry collection there is characteristic silver jewelry with the miniature “RYT” sign? It turned out that she has found two beautiful solid rings in her box. They are still in very good condition today. 

I feel like on a school trip with a class of curious geeks and I’ll tell you, Magpie, that it’s cool to be in a group with: Fashionelka, StyleDigger, StyleOn, Pattines and Outderesen. Together we walk across the machine park, see a diamond under a microscope, which later is set in a ring. Then ladies in flannel shirts polish bracelet jump rings with huge precision. In the next room there are 3D printers which are used to create collection prototypes, and in the next one – interesting polishing machines with e.g. nut shells. Maybe not in this order, Dear Magpie, but the pace is quite fast. Then…

We are watching the phases of creating the pre-premiere collection: whole in Art Déco style… Have I told you that the day had started wonderfully and I’m very thrilled to see it all? Not many people are aware that apart from the design process, W.KRUK also uses the lost wax casting technology, most popular in the contemporary goldsmithing, which I will briefly tell you about.

Manual work can’t be replaced…

I learned that from the accepted prototype the so-called “mothers” are created which are used to make rubbers – empty spaces inside are reflecting the pieces of jewelry. With their help, wax models are created.

Then, cast plaster is poured on the wax models and the whole is inserted into the furnace in special metal tubes. There the wax melts and the plaster hardens. An empty space is created where the melted metal (such as gold, silver or platinum) is poured. In this case, W.KRUK’s caster is pouring a silver granule in front of us.

Through a small opening we watch the melting silver, which starts to bubble and becomes reddish-colored (like lava in Tolkien’s Mordor). After that, we have a finished ready-made jewelry items.

Individual jewelry elements go through goldsmith’s hands who assembles them into the expected jewelry form. Each design is individually soldered, polished, and galvanized, usually by one goldsmith, who takes care of the collection so that all rings would look perfect.

Everything is very interesting to us, I regret that we have to leave so quickly. Well, but now our model blogging group is moving to jewelry workshops to Poznan Concordia Design!

Jewelry making workshop

We arrived at Concordia. We sat at a table full of black velvet, gold chains, charms, fasteners, beads and other trinkets. Before we started creating our own jewelery, the main designer of the brand told us what it was like to create a collection and how W.KRUK’s co-operation with the stars looks like (I’ll tell you that I’ve always been curious!).

Do you know that Kinga Rusin, when designing a collection for W.KRUK, took to the meeting with the brand an old family male signet ring? It became the inspiration to creating the VIS collection whose protagonist is signet ring. It was believed it is a typical male trinket, in this case it became an amulet of a modern and strong woman. You need to know that the project was materialized by the brand’s designer, who together with Kinga Rusin, created projects and drafts of each model from the collection.

OK, the end of fun facts! We’re starting designing, remembering our task is to create jewelry – for us and for our readers, Magpies. We are so touched when we get tiny charms which on one side have W.KRUK, logo and Pica Pica on the other. The workshops are the most pleasant part of this meeting. Look, Magpie, what came out of our Magpie hands.

Competition for Magpies

Do you like them, Magpie? Of course you can pick up both chokers – beautifully packed, with a special certificate of authenticity. There will probably be many interested Magpies, because the necklaces are just divine! That is why me and Katarzyna had to come up with a task for you.

We will send them to two selected Magpies, which in the comment under the article, will answer the competition question. Here it is: Describe your favorite jewelry. In such a way that we can imagine it without looking at it in the picture.  We are waiting for your response to the end of Saturday (29.10). We will announce the results on our  Facebook. Fingers crossed and we can’t wait for your responses.  

We are very grateful to  W.KRUK for this trip – it was a wonderful day. And we count on a replay , because Magpies felt like home there.