Styl Gallery (Galeria Styl) is one of the few amber galleries in Gdańsk that are at the same time amber workshops, where jewelry is designed and manufactured every day. While walking along the Long Wharf (Długie Pobrzeże) do not forget to explore it, not only to admire artistically crafted rings and brooches, but also to listen to stories about amber, which the owner is keen on sharing.
Zbigniew Strzelczyk has run his gallery and studio for 42 years now. As head of the Polish Commercial Chamber of Amber, the Master of Amber, Goldsmithing and Handicraft is one of the most meritorious amber artists in Poland.
No two creations are alike in Styl Gallery. Even if patterns do look similar, they will differ in color. Zbigniew Strzelczyk works with variety of colored amber – from milk-white, through opaque, to transparent. This is not the only quality of the Gdańsk-based master. The jewelry that is available at the gallery is not overwhelmed by silver, which serves rather as a structure upon which amber is based. Amber, the ancient, noble material, and its discolorations in the jewelry defend themselves.
Zbigniew Strzelczyk uses Baltic amber only. It is the oldest available material, which guarantees proper hardness. During treatment, amber releases lovely scent, and has rich, distinct color features.
Amber is a graceful material but, at the same time, very unpredictable. It is sometimes hard to anticipate what will appear after the top layer has been ground. Very often amber holds animal and plant inclusions, that is insects and plats frozen trapped inside of it, that are the same age as the amber – at least 45 million years. Such amber is definitely more precious.
Zbigniew Strzelczyk designs all the jewelry on his own. He also creates them himself, in the studio in the back of his gallery.
It is also where workshops for students of Gdańsk and Łódź Academies of Fine Arts take place. Each year, a trend book is published as a result of those workshops.
The studio also hosts international amber workshops for artists, commissioned by and co-organized by the Polish Commercial Chamber of Amber and Gdańsk City Hall. Each year, Gdańsk invites artists from different countries. In 2015, during the 6th edition of the workshops, the studio will be visited by French artists.
The workshops are an excellent opportunity to showcase Gdańsk as world capital of amber, and present the skills of local amber masters. After a week of classes under the watchful eye of Mr. Strzelczyk foreign artists become excellent ambassadors of Gdańsk and of Polish amber, and – what is the most important – they share their knowledge with the rest of the world.
Contact
Długie Pobrzeże 31, Gdańsk
phone.: + 48 58 300 08 91
e-mail: galeria@amberstyl.pl
