Elisabeth J. Gu. Defner

Elisabeth Defner is one of Austria’s most prominent jewellery artists. Since her jewellery design studies at the Vienna Academy of Applied Arts at the beginning of the 1960s she has been working as an independent artist in Vienna, until 1976 cooperating with the jewellery artist Helfried Kodré in a workshop community. In 1967 she won the Bavarian State Award in Munich, in 1970 the Diamond-Award. Today her works are displayed in museums in eg. Vienna, Graz, Pforzheim, Cologne, Prague and Edinburgh. For Elisabeth Defner – who since 1990 bears the second name of Jesus Guennaibim – jewellery isn’t merely an aesthetic matter, but also especially a form of complementary healthcare for body, soul and spirit. The energy radiated from the metals and stones is in holistic harmony with the forms of the jewellery and can bring about an inner transformation of the wearer. Brooches, earrings, rings or pendants are combined with moulded gingko leaves, so that the beauty of the jewellery can merge idealistically with the magical effect of the plant. Defner’s magnetic jewellery of recent years also presents itself in the context of the incorporation of the hidden power of nature, with magnetic boxes and objects like magic wands and chess pieces. This publication presents the unique work of Elisabeth Jesus Guennaibim Defner – jewellery in a previously unknown style: a unity of man, nature and cosmos.