STORIES FROM THE ATELIER: MARTINA KOCIANOVA
- eliane de luca peres
- Aug 9
- 3 min read
martina and i missed meeting each other in person by only a few hours last march in paris.
as part of the jewelry cast, a group of young and up-and-coming designers established by
darren hildrow, she was showing at nouvelle box, while i was a guest of the jewelry show.
we have been in contact for the past three years, as i have shared her unique and fun work
a few times, so it was such a pity to miss each other!
but since we are, in fact, already connected, it felt only natural to invite her to tell her story here.
i must say that although i love her pieces, the lips ring really tickled my fancy, along with the astroshroom collection. her imagination is so wonderfully whimsical, sometimes candy-like, sometimes almost fairy-tale-like. it is such a joy to share her impressive story here today.
I grew up in Slovakia and started making jewelry when I was around eleven, almost by accident. I bought one of the jewelry making sets, which inspired me to create and delve into more jewelry techniques. No one in my family worked in art or craft, so for a long-time jewelry didn’t feel like a real career path. I somehow convinced my family to let me attend an arts high school, where days were spent drawing anatomy for hours at a time. Around then I gained access to a small jewelry studio in the city and started experimenting with silver, building a portfolio that eventually led me to apply to universities in the UK.
Getting into Central Saint Martins, completely changed things for me. The moment I visited, I knew it was the right place. I had already been fascinated by mushrooms since childhood, especially through mushroom foraging with my mum in Slovakia, and at CSM I realized this strange obsession was actually something unique to hold onto creatively. Mushrooms became a way for me to stay connected to home while living in London, but also a symbol I could build an entire visual language around. During my studies, interning with Castro Smith was incredibly formative. He and his team taught me proper jewelry making, storytelling, and what it means to build a practice from the ground up. Katharina Dettar also pushed my stone carving further, and my graduate collection ended up defining much of the aesthetic I still work with today. After CSM I studied Japanese metalsmithing in Japan, which deepened my commitment to craftsmanship and ultimately pushed me towards pursuing my own artistic practice fully.
Later, becoming part of the Sarabande Foundation gave me the time and environment to properly refine my work. I became much stronger technically in stone carving and setting, but I was also influenced heavily by the art side of Sarabande, which led me to explore sculpture and mycelium more seriously alongside jewelry. It was there that I built my first commercially successful collection, and where opportunities really started opening up for me, including Sarah Burton buying several of my pieces, which felt surreal.
Today my work sits somewhere between fine jewelry, talisman, and little sculpture. I carve gemstones by hand and create mushroom-inspired pieces that feel playful, magical, and emotionally charged through the crystals. For me, mushrooms represent luck, transformation, superstition, childhood memory, and connection to nature all at once. They’re like contemporary lucky charms. That idea eventually evolved into Astroshrooms, a zodiac-inspired collection where I paired each astrological sign with a mushroom based on shared visual traits, symbolism, and energy, integrating birthstones and hand-carved crystals into every piece. My goal is quite simple: I want to make mushroom heirlooms that feel alive, deeply personal, and slightly magical.
i currently sell my jewelry at Dover Street Market in London and New York and also via my ESHOP and at Louisa Guiness Gallery in London. By the time this comes out, I will also be represented by Twist in USA.
