Three decades of amber passion: an interview with Adam Pstrągowski

Adam Pstrągowski, CEO of S&A, has been shaping the amber jewellery market in Poland and abroad for more than three decades. In an interview with Beata Bochińska, president of the Bochiński Foundation, he talks about the beginnings of his career, the challenges he faced and how amber became his passion in life. See what the path from a student at a jewelry school to one of the leaders in the luxury industry looks like.

Beata Bochinska: How many years has Adam Pstrągowski been engaged in jewelry?

Adam Pstrągowski: I have been running the company since 1992, but before that I studied for 3 years and worked as a jeweler for 2 years, that is, a total of 37 years.

B.B.: And where did you study?

A.P.: I studied at the Goldsmithing and Jewellery School in Gdańsk Brzeźno on Portowa 5. Unfortunately, this school no longer exists. It seems to me that our class was the last to educate goldsmiths-jewelers.

I took an internship at the now defunct Central Union of Labor Cooperatives, or CZSP - Zakład Złotniczy merged with the Zegarmistrzowski Zakłady. In such an atmosphere I had the pleasure to learn my trade as a goldsmith - jeweler.

B.B.: It means that employees in a company cannot deceive the owner by saying “this can't be done” [laughs].

A.P.: Today, in fact, there is no need for me to control my responsible production managers, I do not use this knowledge to prove something. In 1992, when I started the company, all the employees were older than me. Therefore, it was difficult to build authority. More than once I had to prove to the old eaters that I could create and execute an ambitious project or that it was possible to do something that the professionals did not want to do.

I was very lucky - I learned the profession as a goldsmith jeweler creating gold products. On the other hand, the son of friends of my parents had a company producing silver products. And so at the CZSP plant I studied gold processing, forging stones, rubies, sapphires, diamonds or jewelry repairs. In my spare time, I went to the GEST production plant in Reda, whose owner, Mr. Zdzisław Mielewczyk, taught me how to work silver. In those days, silver was made mainly by hand, that is, for example: from filigree, soldered, folded, from dies. Later, casting technology began to develop in Poland. So during these three years, studying at the goldsmith and jewelery school and at the Gest company, I learned the whole spectrum of jewelry techniques. From mass production, casting, through the manual making of gold jewelry and unique items.

B.B.: And when did amber appear in this story?

A.P.: My adventure with amber is a surprising story, because the CZSP plant was located on Starowiejska Street in Gdynia, near the Hotel Gdynia. It was Orbis, which was an extremely luxurious hotel, for those times. The so-called “lady of light manners”, working in this hotel, often visited us to spend the money she earned. Once she had just brought amber and had it sanded and framed in gold. The boss asked who would like to take on this assignment, so I volunteered.

This was my first contact with amber. This is a graceful material, very malleable. It can be processed relatively easily to give any shape or cut. And so the jewelry was made for this lady who picked it up and was very happy. As a reward, I got a bottle of Mrs. Walewska's toilet water, and at the time it was a top-shelf product that could be purchased at Pewex, a store that not everyone had access to. [laughs].

B.B.: Oh, please! [laughs] Great story! And when the decision was made, where did the financing come from, what concept to open your business at all? 1992 is very early.

A.P.: I was still studying, because my education looked like this, that I had to become independent very quickly. I didn't really want to be dependent on my parents. Despite the good academic performance in elementary school, I went to the basic vocational school, because even then I knew that I wanted to earn money as soon as possible.

And after finishing school, I continued my studies at the Technical School of Precision Mechanics, in order to later use this knowledge in production. I graduated in management a few years later. In order to earn a penny for starting a business, I went to Sweden on the so-called Saxons.

B.B.: We were there too, I guess everyone was [laughs].

A.P.: Well, that's it! Picking strawberries, cucumbers, raspberries, painting Swedish houses with a brush in this their ruddy color. Digging trenches for the arrangement of storm sewers. Dismantling the irrigation system of cultivated fields. Everything I could and knew how to do, I did to earn as much as possible.

From the earned funds, which I brought quite a lot, I was able to buy the first machines and devices. I brought as many Swedish crowns as I could fit in my suitcase [laughs]. The employer at the time allowed me to prepare silver gifts for Swedes in his factory before leaving, so I made some brooches, pendants and bracelets of silver and amber. Together with our professional colleague Marcin Drabik, after a month of work in Sweden, we pulled out our jewelry collection and began to ask our employer Olaf where and how we could sell the prepared products. We succeeded, we sold everything in one piece at prices many times higher than we expected.

With the money earned, it was possible to take off and buy the first 2 kg of silver, which was rationed at that time. These were surprising and strange times. A man could go twice a week to the Vistula Spit and there, from morning to evening, he drove around the houses of diggers and amber prospectors. Here he bought a handful, there he bought a little more raw material. It was often necessary to wait for such a seeker to wake up, because he had a good harvest the day before, so he celebrated with more than one bottle [laughs].

B.B.: Ah, this initial, wild capitalism [laughs]. This has happened in all industries! This is unimaginable when you listen to these stories. Sometimes it sounds like an unlikely movie scenario.

So it was that in the beginning the money was earned on the Saxons. The converter was great at the time, so that money with us was worth a lot. You could buy equipment or the first silver. But all the time the question remains - why amber? Why not diamonds or other stones?

A.P.: I was guided by intuition. I liked amber from the very beginning. It gave such amazing opportunities and at the same time comes from the region where I was born and lived. We did not need advanced technologies to process or grind it, as is the case with emeralds, rubies or topazes.

Amber is always with me. He travels with me, travels abroad. To this day, I carry a piece of my unique amber amulet in my pocket.

As a beginner jeweler, when I made my first projects in amber, I had a lot of fun seeing how perfect products were created in their proportions and quality of workmanship.

B.B.: I am an art historian and I look at objects primarily from the point of view of how they are designed, what forms they have, what composition they have. There is very, very much of this creative load in these products. Now, as I listen to what you are talking about, I think that this creativity was not only about the project itself, but also about the business itself. Here it took a lot of creativity to get the raw material, the material, etc., so this creativity was essential at every step.

A.P.: We bought the first machines and devices in Germany, because in Poland the industry supporting jewelry factories was only created in the 90s. For example, in Lębork there were two production plants — the Olimpia company, which produced foundries and the company Avalon, which built machine tools for jewelry and amber. Today Avalon is a serious company specializing in the production of machines for machining also metal, cast and cast iron products. Jewelry machines are now just an addition to the offer for them, which they successfully export.

B.B.: You have mentioned several times that this material is grateful. Why is he grateful? Many people told me that this material is rather hard, that it crumbles.

A.P.: Apparently, they don't love amber. If you hit it with a hammer, it actually crumbles. It is necessary to approach this material in the right way. I don't know how I know this, but when I took a piece of amber in my hand, I immediately knew how to apply the surface to the grinder, what cut to put on it, how to frame it — the amber simply asked itself and suggested how to process and frame it. I refer, of course, to individual patterns, that is, unique. I always tell jewelers when designing or creating designs — “less is better”.

B.B.: When we talk about mass production, I know that there are two schools. One says that mass jewelry is not jewelry, and the other says that mass jewelry is the democratization of design.

How do you see that?

A.P.: I believe that the industry should create jewelry and such and such. Each unique product is different due to its shape, size, amber color and proportions. On the other hand, I really liked the statement “democratization of design”, because jewelry that can be scaled and produced in larger quantities is jewelry that promotes amber and is wearable every day and for everyone, around the world we can reach different social strata, promoting Baltic gold.

Of course, in the 90s, when we produced jewelry, most of the production plants in the Tri-City had their own expressive design. At that time, it was mainly the stylistics of amber binding in organic form: leaves, tutki, flowers often oxidized, the so-called eses floresy. Then the design began to develop a little more modern. We have plain jewelry, where amber is sunk, pasted into silver and ground together.

Today, the company that continues this innovative technique is the company of Jerzy Zaulický or MTM. It is like one line, a line of very gallery, unique jewelry, created by such artists as Michał Rozenberg, Emilia Kohut or Dariusz Zarański and many other noble artists. And we have jewelry, which is a democratized design. And in this group we have companies: S&A, Balt, Gielo or Image Silver and many others.

In my opinion, amber is most popularized thanks to repetitive production and, above all, good design. It must be a functional product and designed in such a way that it is suitable not only to be placed on the store shelf, but above all to be worn with pleasure, so that it gives fun and emotions while wearing and presents itself uniquely on the owner.

B.B.: Well, and fit into modern, everyday life, and not just special occasions?

A.P.: Yeah, exactly. Unique artistic, for example: rings or necklaces are bought by a narrow social group and several dozen of these rings will be sold, and the massive ones, cast, will be sold several thousand. And those few thousand women who buy silver or gold jewelry with amber, continue to tell other people about their adventure with amber. So this is how, among other things, by creating well-designed products, we promote amber itself, which comes from the Baltic Sea basin region. Currently, there is no other such serious center for the production of jewelry with amber in the world as Polish companies. Thanks to the unique amber jewelry, we were able to reach galleries all over the world, and thanks to mass production, we reached large chain stores.

B.B.: I am a supporter of democratization here, and I speak about it very often. I believe that we cannot underestimate people who have a smaller budget. They, too, are lovers of beautiful things and someone has to produce it for them. It's just that. The point is in the good design of these massively repeatable patterns and here there is still room for designers to show off. And manufacturers. This good mass design is still very little.

When I tell people that I'm going to the factory to see a jewelry manufacturer, I see a surprise on my face. Poles associate the factory with 19th century factories from the film “Promised Land” or with factories from advertisements, where white aprons are worn, and everything is quiet and automated. What does such an amber factory look like?

A.P.: In fact, the term “factory” is associated with powerful steam engines [laughs]. I would rather use the term “manufacturing plant”. The technology of making jewelry has changed little for two thousand years, because this metal needs to be melted, regardless of whether a hearth, gas or electricity is used for this, and after melting, it is poured into some form. Recently, we have harnessed equipment such as CNC machines or lasers for production. Today, jewelry is no longer designed one hundred percent by hand. Designers, e.g. after the Academy of Fine Arts, design patterns in dedicated IT programs. On the other hand, it is an advanced craft, which has been improved with the gains of technique and available technologies.

The S&A production facility, where we are today, contains everything you need to create unique, original and different jewelry. It all starts with the design. First, a good design is created, on the basis of which the shape of the stone in the grinding mill is prepared. When the stone is accepted by the designer and the designer makes a design based on the stone, he orders a 3D print in resin, and after casting the pattern in metal, the prototype goes to the master jeweler. The specialist processes it and finally prepares the prototype of the pattern in such a way that the designed product can smoothly go through the next stages of production, without causing unnecessary difficulties.

B.B.: It must be adapted to the technology.

A.P.: Exactly. The goldsmith, called the master, makes an excellent prototype, which is the most accurately made jewelry product, as you can imagine. This pattern must be done several times better than the final product. Then we start production. The creation process, based on documentation, goes to the coordinator, who archives all relevant data. Each design has its own card and on this card is the date of creation, the named author of the idea, the designer or the profile of the recipient. So when it comes to this democratized jewelry, this is how it looks like we show this design to customers at the fair, we send samples. Customers watch, try on, evaluate and most often place orders for selected products.

B.B.: Which market appreciates amber the most?

A.P.: Poland. Without hesitation.

B.B.: And outside of Poland?

A.P.: Quality and design are appreciated mainly by Germans. The American market was once a very large market, but it was spoiled by a flood of low-quality jewelry. The Chinese market was also very demanding and appreciative of amber, however, this has unfortunately also changed dynamically.

B.B.: And what markets are interesting to us now? Which one is worth watching?

A.P.: Certainly, the amber industry is overestimating the Middle East market. There amber is recognized and used, however, mainly for making Muslim rosaries. Amber jewelry alone does not represent value. We should definitely pay more attention to the European market, the Scandinavian market, as well as the market of the Baltic countries, where amber has been ingrained in culture for years.

B.B.: And what market for this industry is the Indian market? However, it is a very large market.

A.P.: Unfortunately, this is a market that does not import jewelry, due to the high customs duties and the fact that India is one of the largest jewelry producers in the world, so it's like wanting to export salmon to Norway and trying to sell it profitably there.

B.B.: Let's talk about the Polish situation. Amber at some point began to be associated with the old design, with the so-called “aunt's coral”. But at the same time, the younger generation is beginning to look at this amber timidly. Is this the direction of development of the offer worth taking?

A.P.: I would say this is a must-have! At present, customers of the amber industry mainly belong to the age range of 65+. There is moderate interest among young people. It is indeed a shy interest at the moment, but it is beginning to increase and it is the industry that must take advantage of it ruthlessly.

I notice this myself — my brother's daughter recently asked me why I don't give gifts to anyone in the family in the form of this modern amber jewelry. And I didn't want them to think I was going “easy” all the time [laughs]. However, this question made me realize that such a gift would be attractive to many. Now all the fair sex in the family celebrate S&A design by wearing our products every day.

B.B.: If you were to open a new business today, would it also be a jewelry business?

A.P.: I never asked myself such a question. However, I think amber jewelry is a very pleasant business, thanks to which I can travel the world and share with people beautiful products from my region.

B.B.: I'd like to talk about luxury. The definition of luxury is changing and for everyone it means something different. For some, this may be time for themselves, their own health or an apartment having more than 1 room. Often, luxury is those aspects of our lives that we have never defined so before. You are a representative of the luxury industry. What do you think of these changes?

A.P.: I believe that as an industry, we need to adapt to these changes. In fact, nowadays luxury is free time, one's own health, positive emotions and experiences gained from, for example, traveling or spending time with friends. For many, it is more valuable and less accessible than the most expensive jewelry.

At the same time, a growing group of people are paying attention to the fact that no major brand pays them to be the carrier of their advertising. In my opinion, it tends in the direction that the jewelry will become less intrusive to accompany us in a more discreet way. However, it will still be a part of our lives.

B.B.: I remember that a few years ago, IKEA in the Netherlands introduced experimentally the possibility of renting furniture for students. This company was aware that there is a large group of people who need furniture for a limited time and are simply not interested in buying furniture permanently, because this also becomes a nuisance with subsequent moves. Likewise, luxury fashion brands have also launched a clothing rental for people who, for various reasons, do not want to have the same clothes in their closet. Will there ever be luxury jewelry rentals?

A.P.: There have already been such attempts. I myself was the author of such an idea. But then it was probably too early. Maybe I should return to the topic of accessibility by renting unique items for special occasions?

B.B.: I would be the first customer of such a solution. The world is moving in this direction. People do not want to own, because too strong flaunting the possession of expensive objects is no longer welcome.

A.P.: Democratized design?

B.B.: Exactly!

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Illustrations:

1. Lech Wałęsa receives an amber gift on the occasion of his 75th birthday. Fig. Maciej Kosycarz/KFP

2. S&A at the event “Nature is future”

3. Prince William and Duchess Kate receive an amber gift during their visit to Gdansk.

4. The winner of the Miss Polonia contest receives the crown made by S&A.

5. Adam Pstrągowski and the President of Gdańsk, Paweł Adamowicz.

6. Jewelry production.

7. Jewelry production.

8. Amber grinding.

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