Necklace, 2003 silver, glass beads.
Once upon a time there was an artist called Marion Herbst. She was born in Germany and grew up and lived in Holland. Her mother was a hatter and Marion became a jewellery artist. She was a remarkable woman, a phenomenon. She wanted to change things. Her jewellery was like her, adventurous, colourful, funny, and very self-confident. She died much too young after a long illness. In the years following up to her death she began using glass beads. Many years later her husband saw Karin Seufert's work and read a text of hers about her fascination with beads. After doing some research and discovering that he, Karin and Marion had other things in common, he decided to present her with a box with of Marion’s leftovers: beads, stones, Swarovski crystals, pearls, semi-manufactured products, medallions among others. He explained to her that he had been on the lookout for someone like her since Marion’s death in 1995, someone who could make “just beautiful little things” from it, as Marion would have said. So Karin was given this box, with contents simply asking to be used. Among them were unfinished parts made by Marion herself, not easy to handle. Yet Karin felt the obligation of the gift, to give something back, and to keep the gift moving. Once she understood this she was able to work with the material. This necklace is one of the first results, which is closely connected to Marion’s box. Since that moment Karin has loved working with found objects which bear the marks of their lives, building new stories on them.˙˙˙∆∆∆∆˙˙˙˙
