we introduce: Mette jensen
From Saturday 12th April 2025, a selection of the work of Mette Jensen is going to be on display and available to buy at the sofianni showroom. Please read the interview below to get to know her better.
Danish designer Mette Jensen has been making jewellery from wood and silver for almost twenty years. Trained in London’s Central Saint Martins, she lives and works in native Copenhagen. Her work, has been sold through some of Europe’s best-known galleries, has featured in a number of books.
Is her jewellery ‘precious’? Mette Jensen’s jewellery is not precious in the conventional way of jewellery making. It is, however, precious in the way art is. Who thinks, looking at a painting, that this is fabric and paint?
Mette’s jewellery has heart and soul. Unique in expressing fluidity, lightness and movement, it does through a material solid and stiff. Not two pieces are identical and no mass production techniques are in use. Mette painstakingly makes her pieces individually, from cutting, steaming and bending her wood to fitting, in a way unique to each piece, her specially shaped silver parts.
When looking at Mette’s sculptural pieces, it is not always straightforward how they can be worn. Once on though, you understand why they truly are art for the body and feel the empowerment that only a unique piece of jewellery can give to the wearer.
I acquired my first pair Mette Jensen earrings in 2004, when as a first-year student at Central Saint Martins I was assigned to be her assistant. I have been admiring Mette and collecting her pieces since and being finally able to work with her feels like the fulfilment of a dream.
Why wood?
Well I love all kind of materials and think many hold unexpected possibilities, it just takes time and respect to get to know each material and its characteristics. Wood perhaps is the most giving material, i.e. different kind of wood holds different characteristics and I have always been fascinated exploring some of them.
First memory of wood working?
It’s like it has always been there, my grandfather was a carpenter, and I spent days in his workshop, when we stayed with him and my grandmother during holidays. I remember my toolbox with tiny tools, being told how to handle a hammer and the smell. The latter even now makes me feel secure and remember.
Are your pieces fragile?
Too some degree, i.e. the wood can break. The more solid pieces don’t break, the more delicate can if torn, bitten or squeezed, in most cases because of children’s curiosity, dog’s play or being trot on. The dogs preference for the wooden pieces made me wonder until somebody suggested it was because of the smell of the wax – I think that’s right.
Are your pieces practical?
Yes and no.
Yes, when it comes to the smaller ones. And they are very light, so it’s easy to forget wearing them. Also it makes rather big pieces a possibility.
No, for some of the bigger ones, mostly because they take up a lot of space. I think some of my one off rings are the best examples on this. When people say, I cannot dish wash with this on ( heard in Denmark), I’ve learned to say, it’s a bit like
Favourite designer
Surprisingly, I got more than one: Vivienne Westwood, Issey Miyake, Jean Paul Gaultier and Ivan Grundahl. Unfortunattely the latter died some years ago, I think he was a hidden gem and his designs have been an inspiration for many other designers.
Favourite jewellery designer
Another hidden gem called Jytte Kløve (perhaps Kloeve in English). I’ve loved her jewellery for many years, wrote an essay about her at college and am happy to have been in a couple of exhibitions with her.
What do people buy from you most?
In general earrings and then it becomes difficult, as the specific popular ones change all the time, Every time I think I found the most popular one and try to build a stock, the demand changes. I don’t know why, well a few times I guess it’s because of exposure, like a gallery’s promotion, someone wearing it in public or on television, but I’m still not sure.
With Mette at Inhorgenta, Munich, February 2024
