Interview with Tereza Cermakova

I met Tereza, through a student who became a friend (Ahoj Viktor!) and I’m so thankful (ever since) for the opportunity. If you got the opportunity to meet Tereza one day (at her workshop, for instance), you will see joy, kindness and beauty all at once. 

Camille : Can you please present yourself ?

Tereza : My name is Tereza, I’m from Czech Republic but I lived for many years abroad. I’ve been in Italy for about 6 years and I studied design. I felt in love with Italy but then I realised the best place in the world is Prague so, I came back to Prague.

Camille : Are you from Prague ?

Tereza : No I come from Eastern part of Czech Republic, but I work here, live here and enjoy! 

Camille : You are back since ?

Tereza : I have been back for a year and half. 

Camille : What about the start of your Jewellery passion ?

Tereza : It started very slowly, I would say. When I was a kid I remember I had a passion for precious stones. But then I kind of didn’t know what to study and what to do. I traveled for 10 years and it was time to go back home, to study. I wanted to do Interior Design and I remember the moment when my mom said : “well don’t you want to do jewellery design?”, and I said “well, why not!”. I chose a school in Rome, The Fashion Academy and I studied Jewellery Design there.

Camille : For how long ?

Tereza : For two years. I would’ve like to study for more but this school was just for two years. 

Camille : And Italy, it was just a personal choice, or you were passionate about Italy ? 

Tereza : Yeah I always liked it and I spent a couple of years there before so, I spoke Italian already. I went there when I was 19 years old. I always loved Italy. And of course where should you study design more than in Italy?  

Camille : It’s the Perfect place ! What about the Authenticity and Uniqueness of your art and design?

Tereza : I wouldn’t call it art I think I just, you know, call it “design”. I don’t think it’s art. First, I hope I think there are unique because I don’t copy anyone elses ideas, they are all my own ideas. And they kind of come from my feelings. Mostly from my feelings. Thats why I do abstract and I don’t do many forms that you can recognise immediately. 

Camille : How is your process of creation ? Do you have rituals ?

Tereza : You mean how I come up with ideas, or the process ?

Camille : The start.

Tereza : The start is always the most difficult part to get the idea so it depends, you know I need a lot of quiet time so I like to go for a walk or spend couple of days out of Prague, just to be with myself. And, sometimes it depends. Sometimes I go to an exhibition and then I come back, I have this flash in my mind and I see… I see a shape of something and I give it a form of a ring.

Camille : So its like everyday inspiration ? 

Tereza : Yeah, kind of feel… what’s going on ! 

Camille : Okay ! And the specific rituals regarding the process of making it ?

Tereza : Yes sure, its kind of always the same the technique that I use is called lost-wax technique. And I use this kind of special jewellery wax and I make a model from this wax. Model of a jewellery which is gonna be silver later on. So first I have to make a model. And then I get it casted in silver or gold, depend of the kind of metal. And then I polish it… You know, it takes many hours, every part of the process takes many hours.

Camille : How long (average time) the process take ?

Tereza : It depends how difficult is the model. The wax model might take… just to make the wax and then polish it might take 5, 6 or 7 hours. Because all my jewellery are polished so it takes really a lot of time, to polish them as they are…

Camille : What is your favorite creation ’til today and what’s the story behind it ? 

Tereza : My most favourite one is the one called ‘painful separation’. And the idea came actually from a period which was very not nice for me. I had this boyfriend, we stayed together for many years (almost 6 years). At one moment I felt like that’s it… I have to leave and I have to go back to Prague. I have to break-up with him. I sat down, I remember that moment. I sat down to the table, and created this ring as I really felt. I kind of put my pain into the ring. And I think you know… people around me, they feel it from the ring. I had a client she bought it because of that. She had kind of the same story behind her and she wanted to fix that moment in the ring. So, she bought it !

Camille : And she found it… What values are you promoting through your product (like key words, or specific meaning) ?

Tereza : Well, its very hard to answer this question but… What I think is what I want to sell with my jewellery. All I want that people feel putting on my jewellery is that they feel stronger, they feel self confident and I feel when I go wild in the morning and I forgot to put a ring I have to go back and I have to put it on because I just feel better you know and I just want people feel better with my jewellery. 

Camille : It’s like giving superpowers 🙂

Tereza : Yeah

Camille: So cool ! Then I got a final question, maybe hard but I believe everybody have his life purpose, what would be yours ? How would you define it ? What is your intention behind your everyday creation ? What makes you alive ?

Tereza : You know for me when I create jewellery and when I give it to the client or to someone, for me like the best part of all this process is see the client happy and see I gave him not only a piece of silver or gold, but something that he really feels good with it. Something that gives him/her confidence. And like help him/her find his/her identity. Sometimes my clients wear the piece of jewellery, I created for them, as a talisman! This is very important for me so they feel the strength that I put into the jewellery.

Camille : So you are giving happiness and true value … 

Tereza : Yeah and emotions because I think I put a lot of emotions into the jewellery and I am very happy when people feel it. When they tell me they feel the emotion from it. Without me asking them you know, this is the best satisfaction !

Camille : Yeah it’s the natural way. Like a natural process… Beautiful !

Many thanks again to my dear friend, Tereza. You can find her Solybox page and products here.