With her latest collections, London-based bench jeweler Kay Konecna is using her jewelry designs to convey what she considers the most important message in life: that people can be courageous and capable in ways they never expected.
The two collections, Obi and Obi Skai, offer reminders that while life may take you down challenging pathways, you are resilient and ultimately are in control of what you do next, the Slovakia-born Konecna says.
One piece in particular illustrates what Konecna is trying to achieve with her jewelry, and that is the Obi Flow #1 pendant. Its yellow diamond looks like it jumped into a pool of molten gold. It’s representative of Konecna’s journey over the past few years—experiencing great difficulties but doing what it takes to recover and heal.
“I wanted to find a visual that symbolized who I am now as a person. I am brave, I am strong, I have confidence. I needed something to remind me that I am that person,” Konecna says. “I started looking at different shapes and visuals to help me symbolize this. But I wanted it to be inconspicuous at the same time—something that was concealed and not easy to interpret.
“My strongest idea was the concept of taking a leap or jumping into things. I’m running toward the edge of a cliff and jumping,” Konecna says. “I know I will go down, but eventually I will come up. Half of my body is submerged, but the rest is abovewater. I wanted to pause that moment in jewelry and work with that visual.”
Obi and Obi Skai also are about being athletic and allowing your body to play an important role in your healing, Konecna says. She grew up skiing, and she adored the joy that came with the run down a mountain. But as she is currently living in London, she had to look for a substitute for that endorphin rush. That is how she found spinning, an intense cycling exercise.
“Emotionally it is similar to skiing in that you are surrounded by other people but you are doing it by yourself. It’s very physical but at the same time very euphoric,” Konecna says. “For it to feel euphoric, you have to go through a lot of pain. It was through exercise that I learned to overcome the ideas I had about myself.”
While she named her collections Obi after the kimono belt—which Konecna considers a symbol of stability—Skai comes from her love of sunsets and the colors in the sky as the sun seemingly disappears. Skai means sky, heaven, or the atmosphere seen from the Earth, depending on what language it is translated from, Konecna says. Knowing her affinity for sunsets, her friends and family have nicknamed her “Kay Sky” (her first name’s pronunciation rhymes with sky) and often text her pictures of their latest favorite sunset.
Whether her jewelry pieces signify that metaphoric leap off of a cliff or the push that exercise provides, Konecna hopes her clients wear them as a way to take care of themselves and see that they can indeed do difficult things.
“It’s a visual representation of trying hard—that you push yourself to do a few more reps before you take a break,” Konecna says. “It’s private, personal symbolism. I think of it like an iceberg in an ocean. There’s what you see on top and a mass under the water [you don’t see]. Anything you’re building, whether that’s in sports, business, or relationships, there’s a lot of invisible work you have to do even before it reaches the surface.”
Top: London-based bench jeweler Kay Konecna recently released two collections, Obi and Obi Skai. (Photos courtesy of Kay Konecna)
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