Shopping for a '70s Statement Necklace? Vintage Styles from Finnish Jewelry Designer Pentii Sarpaneva Are Cheap Collectibles
Plus: Upgrade your huggie game with Mudd Pearl's Brutalist-lite Geode hoops.
Brutalism in jewelry is back, baby. And it’s about time. Those $20 statement necklaces from the 1970s on eBay aren’t going to buy themselves.
And also, they’re legit amazing, designed to transform an entire outfit in an instant. Giant, rough-textured forms—some spiky like sea urchins, others flat and rugged like tree bark—slung onto waist-length brass and bronze chains? Sign me up. Jewelry with this much rizz is ideal for bold fashion types: your Lisa Eisners, Julia Foxes, the Lenny Kravitzes. But Brutalism looks cool on everyone.
We’ve talked here on Jewelry Reference about how David Yurman started out as a Brutalist, and how a group of Canadian dudes helped make Brutalism in jewelry a movement to watch. Now we’re going to dive into Pentii Sarpaneva, a Finnish jewelry designer who worked from the ’50s through the ’70s making Brutalist jewelry full of highly textured and voluminous forms, fused with traditional Finnish jewelry design motifs. His famous Kalevala Koru Lapponia collection from the ’60s drew inspiration from Finland’s wild Lapland landscapes—lots of swirling, organic forms that feel like they were carved by the icy wind.
Sarpaneva was primarily a graphic designer, but in his jewelry life he specialized in creating affordable pieces. He studied metal art and graphic design at both the School of the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts and the Institute of Industrial Arts in the 1940s, and began his design career in the early 1960s. In the mid-1960s, he began collaborating with iconic Finnish jewelry brand Kalevala Koru, and in 1967 he became the artistic designer for Finnish silver manufacturer Turun Hopea Oy, where he worked as artistic director until his death in 1978.
His work is still in low-key demand among vintage modernist design collectors, and is even in museums including the British Museum. But pieces can be had on Etsy and eBay for as low as $30. Dealers at vintage shows will charge you five times that much—I bought his famous owl pendant (see it above) at the Dulles Flea show a couple of years ago for $150, and there are currently two on sale for under $50 on Etsy (ouch!). So go the e-commerce route with Sarpaneva pieces. And act fast.
Mudd Pearl’s New Geode Huggies Are Gently Brutalist (And a Chic Huggie Upgrade)
Mudd Pearl is one in a handful of bleeding-edge cool jewelry brands I look to to see what’s coming down the pike when it comes to trends for the already fashionable (lovers of delicate/classic styles won’t get into Mudd Pearl).
Recently the brand debuted its Geode huggies in silver and gold plate — with modest gemstones garnet and black onyx — that have the power to elevate an earring stack to supersonic levels of chic.
Behold:
