With a lifelong passion for jewelry design - Gine
Sommerfelt started her career as an apprentice at the Tostrup company
in Oslo, Norway, only 15 years old. She stayed on for 4 years. After graduating
from the National College of Art and Design (NCAD) Oslo, Norway in 1959,
Sommerfelt worked with the company ONEIDA Ltd., State of New York, where
she made herself known through several awardvinning designs for flatware.
Back in Norway she entered a position as designer at Tostrup, where
she designed modernistic neckpieces and rough sets of brooches and earrings,
sometimes with enamelled details. Her designes from this periode are simliar
to the early works of Tone Vigeland. Gine Sommerfelt, with Gudmund Elvestad
and Tostrups leading designer Grete Prytz-Kittelsen, came to be one of
the most interesting desingers of modernist jewelry at the Tostrup company.
In 1964 she started up her own workshop continuing to develope a distinctiv
style of her own.
Gine Sommerfelt has exhibitied frequently since the 1970s and her jewelry
has been recognized by major art institutions and by HM The Queen Sonja
of Norway. Her highly modern designs get their inspiration from the dramatic
Norwegian nature and ancient Nordic jewelry designs. In her later jewelry
collections, she combines silver with fossilized insects and plants.
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Earrings,
silver, 1960s.
Brooch,
silver,1960s.
Earrings,
silver with enamel, 1960s.
Necklace,
silver, ca 1964.
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