Vivianna Torun Bülow-Hübe

Vivianna Torun Bülow-Hübe (4 December 1927 – 3 July 2004), often known simply as Torun, was one of Sweden's most important 20th century silversmiths and a master jeweller. She is the first female silversmith to have become internationally noted. Among her most important works are the watch "Vivianna," the bracelet "Mobius," and the earrings and necklaces "Dew Drop."

Early life Born Torun Bülow-Hübe, she grew up in Malmö with her sculptor mother, town planner father and three older siblings. Her entire family was creative: a sister became a poet and her brother and other sister grew up to become architects. Torun began making jewelry as a teenager. She attended the Stockholm university of arts, crafts and design Konstfackskolan (later renamed Konstfack). She staged her first exhibition at the age of 21. In 1948 she traveled to Paris and Cannes, where she met painters Pablo Picasso (whom she 10 years later exhibited with), Georges Braque and Henri Matisse. A few years later she opened her own studio, which made her the first female silversmith in Sweden with her own workshop. In 1978, she moved with her youngest daughter to Jakarta in Indonesia, the birthplace for the Subud movement. In 2002, after being diagnosed with leukemia, she left Indonesia to live with her daughter Marcia and 5 grandchildren in Denmark, who had moved there some years earlier. She died in 2004, at the age of 76.

Work and awards

Throughout her career, Torun worked in Sweden, France, Germany and Indonesia.

In 1948, saying that she didn't want to design jewelry for the wives of wealthy men to keep locked up in private, Torun began making what she called "anti-status jewelry" out of twisted silver wire embellished with crystals and pebbles from the beach. In 1959, she designed the Mobius necklace, which included a lead crystal drop to be draped over the shoulder of the wearer. It was described by Barbara Cartlidge, author of the reference book Twentieth Century Jewelry, as a "milestone in the history of modern jewelry." In 1962, Torun designed a stainless steel bangle-style wristwatch for an exhibition at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris.

In 1960, Torun was awarded a gold medal at the Milan Triennale and also won the American Lunning Prize for design, given annually to innovative Scandinavian designers in their thirties. She subsequently began working with the Danish silver company Georg Jensen A/S, for which she designed exclusively from 1969.

Torun is the designer behind some of the most famous Georg Jensen jewelry designs, including 'Mobius', 'The Vivianna bangle watch/ open watch', 'Beans', 'Forget me knot' and 'Hidden Heart'. She is the second most famous Georg Jensen designer, behind Jensen himself. In 1992 she was awarded the Prince Eugen medal by King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden for outstanding artistic achievement. She did not use valuable stones, preferring instead pebbles, granite, rock crystal, moonstone and quartz.

Torun's jewelry has been worn by celebrities including Billie Holiday, Ingrid Bergman, and Brigitte Bardot, and her customers included Pablo Picasso, Chester Himes and Duke Ellington. Her work can be seen in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, the Swedish National Museum in Stockholm, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Montreal, the Louvre in Paris, the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths in London, and in the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich. Her jewelry and housewares are sold today by retailers such as Georg Jensen, and Bed Bath & Beyond.