International focus

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 award winning designs for flatware.

Back in Norway

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.

Exhibitions

Gine Sommerfelt has exhibitied frequently since the 1970s and her jewelry has been recognized by major art institutions and by HM 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.