Björn Weckström

The "Offering Lambs" necklace, now to be sold at Helsinki Winter Sale, is one of the key pieces in Weckström's change of style. In 1964, the necklace was exhibited with other jewellery in the same style at the Finnish Design Centre in Helsinki, and the Finnish public saw Weckström's new style for the first time. The reception was somewhat harsh, and the New Press wrote: "Björn Weckström, who until now has made such beautiful jewellery, shows shapeless lumps that are hard to understand". It was primarily the necklace Offering Lambs that had aroused this reaction with its raw, almost primitive, and convention-breaking design language. At the end of the exhibition, a new press show was organised, during which mannequins wore the jewellery. This time the reaction was quite different, and the New Press wrote: "When you see Weckström's new jewellery on a mannequin, it gives a completely different impression, and you realise that something significant has happened in Finnish jewellery art."
The "Offering lambs" consists of six gold lamb figures, five of which run in a circle. The smoky quartz used to contrast with the gold has no particular significance, according to Weckström himself but was chosen because he could get smoky quartz in large uncut pieces. Traditionally cut stones did not interest Weckström as they did not fit in with his material romantic style. The piece's name came about through the working process and refers to the bodies of the lambs, and that Weckström wanted an archaic and interesting name for the archaic necklace. As an afterthought, it could also be said that the name referred to the change that had happened; the traditional style of jewellery had been sacrificed to give way for the new, for the future.

Exhibited in 1964 at Finnish design center in Helsinki.

Pictured at page 65 in "Mitt liv som Björn" by Björn Weckström, 2018.