The hole story

The jeweller Karl Fritsch was giving a talk in Wellington yesterday telling of his evolution from commercial jeweler (briefly) to artist. From buying rings from pawn shops (a cheaper way of buying gold) and filling the gaps in the existing settings where the gems had been prised out to making work from scratch.

One great story was of his efforts to have a hole cut through a diamond so he could insert it onto a spiked setting. It ended up requiring an expensive laser cutting process that resulted in the area that had been cut out being worth more than the diamond that remained. As Laurie Anderson famously sang on her fist single, “It's Not the Bullet that Kills You (It's the Hole)”.

Image: Karl Fritsch gold, diamond and nails