Ewa and Ryszard Kulczynski are the owners of Cool Design – a 15-year-old Swiss company offering various types of amber and their own jewellery. They have a unique, individual approach towards each lump of amber and that is why it is possible to bring beauty out of it, even deeply hidden. Apart from typically commercial products, on the company’s stall during numerous fair events one can also see exceptional and unique products being highly complicated. They talk to Anna Sado about their amber fascination, its position in the world, newly discovered American market and ancient amber.
It often happens that people who have had a contact with amber once fall in love with it immediately. Are you also infected with this “amber virus”?
Ryszard Kulczynski: A man has to be emotionally bound with amber if working with it takes him so much time that it becomes a part of his life. The same is with buyers – they also get “hooked”. Amber is not such an ordinary product which is bought and sold, it is for unique people. It can be compared e.g. to opal which is emotionally engaging as well.
How did your adventure with amber begin?
RK: Cool Design has been existing for 15 years. In the galleries at Mariacka St. me and my wife bought everything we liked, not thinking at all about the fact that we would have to sell it later. At the beginning of one fair event we were mistaken with other exhibitors as we had a similar offer. I got so irritated that I bought a grinder and started cutting by myself – it was surprising for me that it took really much time. But thanks to it we became more credible as a company in the opinion of our buyers.
At first we offered only Baltic amber, and then gradually we started discovering the allure of other fossil resins – at present we have all types of amber which appear in the world in trade quantities. Two things told us to make such decision – on the one hand fear of lack of good raw material and on the other hand aesthetic reasons: most women look better in dark shades of amber. It is interesting that white – almost non existing – and yellow amber are much more difficult to sell. This condition is perfectly met by Mexican amber. We have also Dominican amber. And because of a demand for dark shades we have also modified amber in our offer…
… labelled as modified, of course…?
RK: Absolutely! In my opinion you can do everything with amber but you necessarily have to inform a buyer about it. Unfortunately, not everybody respects this rule. The same is with fossil resin which in Poland is modified on industrial scale… and sold as amber.
Perhaps not for long as export of fossil resin from Columbia is banned.
RK: If drugs get exported from Columbia, it is hard to imagine that it will not be possible to export fossil resin. In Dominicana they also banned to export the raw material, however it does not concern polished amber. It is similar with Ukraine – today a huge majority of Polish producers base their production on Ukrainian material. Bans are made so that bigger number of middlemen can make money and that is why a final price is so high. Because of constantly increasing prices of the material and ready made products many producers, middlemen and sellers withdraw from the business. All the more so because amber does not have its own logo and has not been appropriately promoted. That is why it is difficult to reach a higher level – amber is still associated with something cheap and many people think it does not have a right to cost a lot.
What amber do women want?
RK: Women would eagerly buy the jewellery which they have not seen yet but it is difficult to surprise them all the time. The biggest part of our offer constitute classical products because – as we have learned many times – classics is everlasting. Whereas we do not pay too much attention to fashion trends because in my opinion they are not really reflected in jewellery. Not long ago yellow was hot but we did not sell any necklace in this colour.
Ewa Kulczynska: It is interesting that in this time dark ambers sold best…
RK: That is why I think that you need to have your own vision and be consistent – it provides results in a time perspective. When you hesitate and change your mind all the time, it does not lead to anywhere.
But you cannot be consistent against market rules…
RK: The market must be created. I try to create this market and create the needs.
Your prices are quite high compared to the prices of Polish or Lithuanian companies. How can you explain it?
EK: Only comparable things can be compared… Apart from typically commercial products we sell unique and luxurious things and that is why they are definitely more expensive. Besides we try to complicate our products more and it constitutes an additional justification of their price. When customers ask me about the price for one gram, I always explain that it depends on a type of a product and amber. Green amber is the most expensive one as it is the rarest one. It can be found in Dominicana and Mexico and is even rarer than a blue one. We have to pay high price for a natural red amber, transparent, from Mexico. Its exceptional charm is related to the fact that is has a colour of red wine but only on the surface, deeper it is green and in the sunshine it is greenish-blue. That last one sells in Italy best.
Cool Design can be met at many fair events…
RK: Yes, in practice we travel around the world but we take part only in strictly trade fairs because only such events are able to provide sufficient security and effectively high number of trade buyers. In this respect inhorgenta europe is counted as one of the best fairs – the majority of buyers come from Germany, Switzerland, Austria but they are also from Portugal, Greece etc.
Your company has also taken part in this year’s Tucson Gem Show for the first time. How do you assess this event?
RK: I was satisfied after coming back from Tucson. And I decided that I had done it too late. I am also going to attend JCK Las Vegas in May where I will have my stall in the designer hall. I am sure that it is a right decision: the world must see more sophisticated amber – people expect it and I can see that they are interested in such offer.
Against the opinions that the American market has crashed?
RK: People are afraid of what newspapers write, and the newspapers can spoil an atmosphere. America, falling into ruin, will have been doing it for a long time so there is no need to worry. A crisis is global and is not limited only to the USA. Generally, in many countries there has been an erosion of a middle class and it was the main group buying jewellery. The biggest demand is for the jewellery from the lowest and the highest price level, while amber still has not got access to a luxurious sector. Famous jewellers use it only occasionally and this is not enough.
EK: Our customers, who have been working with us for many years and are very good jewellers, persuaded their customers to buy amber it has worked well. So we are glad that our “work from scratch” shows effects. However, sometimes we do worry when someone buys a lot of amber if he or she will be able to sell it. But most of our customers come back and that is a good sign.
RK: There are very few good customers so there is a necessity to act globally.
EK: We have recently sold amber to Ethiopia and Mozambique.
Both in Tucson and Munich there was a big interest in the jewellery with ancient amber, presented at your stall. What hides behind the word “ancient”?
EK: This amber comes from Pakistani province of Balutchystan and from Mali in West Africa where it has been worn for many generations. It is Baltic amber, cut at least a few hundred years ago, which was reaching Tibet, Pakistan and Afghanistan by means of exchange trade. You buy this amber in one lump and you have to collect it for a long time as they are very important for their owners and they are sold only in critical situations. Each time we check if it is really genuine amber because even in these old lumps sometimes you can find equally old imitations. We have quite a lot such interesting specimen of amber, they are eagerly bought mostly in Asia.
