ABOUT ELIRD
ELIRD began when two disciplines met at the scale of jewellery.
Founded in 2016 by sculptor and painter Ebrahim Mohammadian and industrial and product designer Ena Mulavdic, ELIRD is an independent fine jewellery studio based in Sarajevo. We came to jewellery from different directions, and that difference continues to shape the work we make together.
Ebrahim approaches an object through sculpture, surface and painting. Ena through structure, proportion, function and the logic of how an object comes together. At the workbench, these ways of thinking constantly cross. A ring may begin as a sculptural form, develop through questions of construction, acquire a carved relief, a stone cut specifically for it, or a miniature painting that changes the entire composition.
This is why, for us, designing and making belong to the same process.
More than thirty techniques are practised within our studio. We work with wax modelling and lost wax casting, carving and relief, engraving, enamelling, miniature oil painting on metal, reverse intaglio, gemstone cutting and faceting, stone setting, surface finishing and polishing. Some techniques have been part of jewellery for centuries. Others entered our practice through painting, sculpture, design and our own experiments at the bench.
Keeping these processes within the studio gives us a particular kind of freedom. A decision can remain open while the piece is being made. A stone can alter the form around it. A relief can continue onto a surface that was initially meant to stay plain. A miniature can change in response to the way light passes through the glass above it. The making itself becomes part of the design.
Most ELIRD pieces are one of a kind or made individually to order. We are interested in jewellery that reveals the hand, thought and time invested in it, and in objects capable of becoming deeply personal through years of being lived with.
The studio has also gradually become a place of education.
Through apprenticeships, international internships, extended studio training, teaching within higher education and shorter studio formats, we share knowledge that has developed through our own practice. This part of ELIRD is presented more fully through Education, where making is approached as a way of developing observation, judgement and an individual language.
ELIRD remains a two person studio. Every piece still passes through our hands, from its earliest idea to its final surface. This scale allows us to stay close to the materials, to keep experimenting, to teach, and to remain deeply involved in every object that leaves the studio.
After years of working together, this is still what holds our attention: how much can exist within something as small as a piece of jewellery.