This year we will be celebrating a number of round amber anniversaries. One of them, and certainly one of the most important ones, is the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Art Silver Krause Company.
Its owner Leszek Krause is an engineer by education. He obtained journeyman’s diplomas in the amber jewellery and goldsmith professions, and a master’s diploma in the goldsmith craft in 1987. In 1988, the Minister of Culture and Art granted him the title of Master of Artistic Handicraft. Mr Krause’s company developed over the years, training several dozen employees and apprentices, many of whom now run their own businesses. In the 1980s, he took part in St Dominic’s Fair, several times winning first prize for best artistic handicraft products. He often showcased his works at numerous exhibitions in Poland and abroad, winning awards and honourable mentions. In 1986, Mr Krause made the amber LPs which were the main prize at the Song Festival in Sopot. He is a member of the International Amber Association and serves as one of its experts on raw amber and amber products. Today, he runs a medium-sized business.
Thirty years is a long time; surely a lot has happened over these years which could be enough to fill a book. Please tell us about your beginnings, about how your adventure with amber began and what the source of your interest was.
I was born in the Hel Peninsula, so I have been close to the sea and to amber, which you were able to find on the Baltic beaches after storms, since I was a child. I had a wonderful childhood there in the midst of beautiful and still wild nature, which always fascinated me. Ever since I was very young, I have been into photography and dreamt about working in forestry, but the circumstances did not allow me to pursue these interests. I graduated from electrical technical college, and then from the Electrical Engineering Faculty at the Gdansk University of Technology. I worked in a design office but it turned out that this direction did nothing for me and that my dreams and goals were completely different. I decided to take a risk and make a complete job change. I had a couple of friends then who worked with torch burners and they showed me the basics. I got to like it and that’s how my jewellery-making education began.
How did you obtain the necessary knowledge and qualifications? It wasn’t often that a person with university education would show interest in handicraft professions.
Back then you couldn’t work in silver without a journeyman’s title to your name. I got an exemption but after a year I had to pass a journeyman’s exam at the Chamber of Craft in Gdansk. I found work in amber and silver exciting from the very beginning. I knew I had found something which brings me a lot of satisfaction, and at the same time an opportunity to make a living for my family.
You set up your business in 1978. In those days, the state was not favourably disposed towards private business. Some say that you could sell practically anything back then, while now you must really strive and look for the customer. What was it like to run a business back then?
No, I can’t agree that it was so easy. First of all, back then you had to obtain a license not only if you were self-employed, but also to hire employees. You had to be a member of the guild, the amount of silver available was limited. This was an immense limitation in terms of production or rather manufacture, because in those days one could hardly talk about mass production; everything was done by hand. There were no automated casting facilities, nor any other contemporary conveniences, and with such small rations of silver you had to learn to use the material to the maximum. Getting amber supplies wasn’t easy either. You would buy it off the gatherers then, for a time the authorities allowed anonymous amber purchases. The highly hindered access to the material had to limit the development of your business. At the time, everybody tried to bring out amber’s natural beauty, no one used autoclaves for clarifying or colouring stones. In the late 1980s, people who had the title of Artistic Handicraft Master would sometimes receive a one-off permit for the direct purchase of silver, even up to several kilograms. The situation changed completely in the early 1990s though.
What – apart from the clear improvement of business conditions – changed with the coming of the 1990s?
The workshop owner didn’t have to have a licence anymore; all you had to do was employ someone with a journeyman’s or master’s title. Later, even this requirement was abolished, everyone was allowed to set up a business. Supply in silver stopped being a problem, you could buy any amount you wanted. The same happened with amber as firms offering Russian and Ukrainian raw amber appeared in the market. I’d say that it has never been easy in this business and after ‘89 it was simply that the rules changed.
How do you see the industry’s development after 30 years of work? There is certainly a number of opportunities and threats, such as price competition with Asian firms. Besides, Polish companies also compete chiefly in terms of prices rather than quality and diversity, although some change can be seen in this regard as well.
As for opportunities, for some time now the authorities of Gdańsk have begun to perceive amber as a regional trademark and product. The authorities’ attitude is clearly changing. I see a future in the promotion of amber and in domestic extraction. I think that the industry will continue to grow.
The eastern markets with their cheap labour are a threat, of course. We can also see a turn largely to mass production. More and more companies have state-of-the-art machines with enormous production capacities, so the market is flooded with such jewellery. It used to be that most jewellery was made by hand, now it is mass-produced and the pieces are quite alike. I remember when I used to take part in St Dominic’s Fair in the 1980s. Back then, it was a matter of honour for every manufacturer to show that they made something that was uniquely their own and that they had their own individual design. The products would differ very much from each other and you could actually tell the studio by the product. Today, most customers want small jewellery, repeatable and repetitive cookie-cutter stuff.
It used to be that every craftsperson had to design and build their own machines, it was the same with the pastes used to polish and finish amber, which were often closely-guarded business secrets. In the 1990s, companies specialising in the production of equipment, semi-finished products and production materials appeared, which was a good thing and helped our companies greatly in their production.
Threats to the amber industry appeared quite early. One of them was the sale of large amounts of amber cabochons to foreign companies, which set them for instance in Mexico. Their form and quality wasn’t the best, but the settings were much cheaper. It was because of products with poorer design quality that amber depreciated in the markets.
The best way to tackle competition is to run ahead of it. Polish design is different from that in Lithuania or Russia. We’ve got not only tradition but also a different way of thinking about the fossil resin.
Yes, we always competed in terms of design. Once, when pieces were made by hand, this was much more noticeable. However, you can’t come up with much when you have mass production and small items. If we are to compete, it is only in amber-decorated jewellery, because there are countless other gemstones on the world market and I don’t think that we could be more attractive than for instance manufacturers from China or Thailand. So what we’re left with is amber, where we can retain a strong standing. After all, people are already talking about a Gdańsk school of amber jewellery. It’s curious that once some of our Western customers saw more value not in those items with surfaces polished smooth, in other words the more technically difficult pieces, but in those in art nouveau style, where you can hide any imperfection. But, of course, there’s an opinion for every customer.
You’ve gone through the entire course of professional education, all the way up to master’s diplomas. In recent years, jewellery courses have been initiated in Gdynia, last year a course started in Gdańsk. How does a master goldsmith and amber jeweller see the comeback of vocational education after years of abandonment and neglect?
Certainly, this is the right direction. In the future there should be no hindrances in access to the amber profession like those in the past. Young people who begin work in the industry should be educated and have the professional know-how. Even a company owner who is only an investor should know the craft. I wish all budding jewellery artists perseverance, satisfaction from the choice they’ve made and lots of success.
