5th International Baltic Jewellery Show "Amber Trip" was satisfying for most of 120 exhibiting companies.
A basic assortment offered at this fair is amber, although in the five years since its first edition its range has significantly got wider and now includes also silver and golden jewellery, decorated with precious and jeweller's stones, gemstones, pearls and machines and devices for jeweller's trade. During this time Amber Trip has also consolidated its position in the region and gained many foreign exhibitors from Poland, Turkey, Russia and Ukraine. The majority invariably constitute Polish companies which see some potential to use on Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian markets. At first many of them tried to struggle with amber offer but soon it turned out that local buyers are much more interested in silver jewellery as well as golden jewellery decorated with precious stones. Since these markets, however relatively small, show worldwide tendencies as it comes to a demand for also more expensive jewellery. Whereas amber companies expect mainly foreign customers. The vast majority of Lithuanian amber products is exported – in the country only 5% is left and even out of it a considerable amount lands in tourists' hands. The Lithuanian specialize in purely amber jewellery but gradually and with various success they try themselves in the jewellery made of precious metals and decorated with amber. As second after Poland “amber tycoon”, they eagerly take part in foreign international fair events in Europe as well as in America and Asia.
Amber accents
Amber subject matter was represented by a display of chosen figurines from the “Amber ZOO” collection by Uwe Petersen from Germany. It is the biggest such collection in the world with approximately 400 intricately hand-carved figurines of 200 animal species. Very attractive was also an exhibition of amber artists' works associated in the Tsarskoe Selo Amber Workshop Ltd. in Pushkin near Petersburg which could be seen during the Ambermart fair in Gdansk in September last year.
The subjects referring to amber were also taken up at the lectures which accompanied the fair for three days. Wieslaw Gierlowski was telling about monumental works by Lucjan Myrta, focusing on The Amber Treasury. Giedymin Jablonski, an artist, a lecturer and a curator of competitions who in the world is strongly associated with amber, was telling about 30 years of his experience in creating unique jewellery. Michael Zobel, ranked among the leading jewellery artists in the world, who this year celebrates 40th anniversary of his artistic activity, was telling about his achievements, also the ones connected with amber. In Polish amber circles he is particularly valued for the fact that he introduced amber “into society” through combining it with precious stones and materials.
The fair's attractions
The organizer took great pains to make this fair more attractive, especially for the visitors. There was a special VIP package including among other things transport from and to an airport, free accommodation in a hotel and trips around Vilnius and surrounding area. The next fair's attraction – although poorly publicized and used not too well by media – was an international artistic competition “The moment, last! You are so beautiful!”, which this year has been organized for the first time and is to accompany the fair's subsequent editions. The Jury consisted of well-known people representing the world jewellery and goldsmithery scene: Giedymin Jablonski (a competition's curator, Poland), Michael Zobel (Germany), Sergey Falkin (Russia), Mona Wallström (Sweden), Kazimieras Mizgiris (Lithuania), Kristi Paap (Estonia), Lev Romanenko (Russia), Antonio Altarriba (Finland) and Oleg Auzers (Latvia).
A traditional part of the fair is the Amber Trip Fashion Show – a show in which fashion and jewellery collections are presented. This year 11 teams consisting of fashion and jewellery designers presented their collections in which synthetic stones dominated.
The fifth edition of the International Baltic Jewellery Show “Amber Trip” can be taken as successful. Generally, the exhibitors were satisfied with the frequency of visitors, although the weather was not too favourable. Among quite large number of non-professional audience could be seen buyers known from the Amberif or Ambermart fairs. Thinking especially about them the organizer chooses a date just before the biggest amber fair Amberif. But it constitutes a big problem for those exhibitors who find one day as too little time to prepare for the fair in Gdansk. That is why some companies present in Vilnius totally different teams and others simply wind up their stands one day earlier (what is at variance with the fair's regulations). Giedrius Guntorius, an originator and organizer of Amber Trip claims that there is nothing unnatural in it and points at Asian events which are organized practically one after the other.
Photo of "Amber ZOO
": Nordschmuck GmbH
