My name is Jaroslav Kučera. I work and live in Prague.
As a matter of fact, I made my acquaintance with metal already as a child. Both my parents worked with metal. I was introduced to the craft of jewellery making as I studied at the Secondary School of Arts in Turnov and specialised in the crafts of jeweller and silversmith. This was where I gained my first experience with the craft, but studying sculpture at the studio of Prof. V. K. Novák at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague proved to be the main source of my inspiration. That shaped my approach to jewellery as an object. To me, jewellery is an autonomous object – a sculpture, created by using jewellery-making techniques. This approach deepened over a semester that I spent studying sculpture at Winchester School of Art. The opportunity to meet Prof. Susan Ewing and be a postgraduate student in her studio at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, was another valuable experience. I studied silversmithing techniques, which are closer to creating functional objects, bordering on the area of design. Metal and metalsmithing techniques are the basics that define my work, but they often lead me to other materials as well. To me, the craft is a starting point, from which I am trying to work towards unexpected and singular solutions. I enjoy working on the object, as well as searching for a concept and designing. Whenever possible, I create the work myself and, almost every time, the objects are the work of my own hands.