Puffed Up series 2011-2016

After apprenticing as a goldsmith and graduating from Copenhagen’s Institute of Precious Metals, Danish designer Kim Buck opened his eponymous studio and gallery in 1990. He has created lines for designers such as Georg Jensen, focusing on the interplay between wearer and object. The insignia of signet rings can provide clues to a person’s identity. With this series of inflated forms, designer Kim Buck inscribes a protracted metaphor into the metal itself. Carefully welded from a sheet of 999.9 gold, the three rings were puffed up with hot air to symbolise the risk of inflating one’s ego. As they are worn, the swollen signet rings slowly collapse, the shiny patina accrues scratches, and the wearer is reminded of the hazards of hyperbole.