About the story:

We live in a confusingly complex world.
Every individual, incident or item presents itself in a different
manner to different observers. Viewed from one angle a facet
may shine all the brighter, while from another it will disappear
into the shadows.

Under constant pressure to make quick, impulsive decisions
we also risk losing sight of the great, existential questions.
Taking the easy way out - clearly differentiating between
right and wrong, black and white, good and evil -
seems like an outrageous luxury, a luxury we can no longer
afford. And yet we never cease to yearn for it.
Melanie Haarhaus has now given this yearning form in the
pieces from her new jewelry collection
"Maiden's Prayer and Satan's Whiskers."

The collection tells one of western culture's oldest stories,
a story of the quest to clearly divide good from evil,
and makes it come alive in an altogether different
kind of luxury.


Additional information

Kirsten Lubach, born 1973 in Troisdorf, is a master
craftsman in engraving. She created the engravings featured
in the collection, adding an important element to the
overall picture of the particular pieces.
Following an apprenticeship in Hanau she was awarded a
scholarship that enabled her to earn her master craftsman's
certificate at Muotoiluinstituutti in Finland in 1999.
She has lived in Vienna since 2000; in 2003 she began working
for the Österreichische Staatsdruckerei as one of the few
engravers still practicing.
Among her other responsibilities there she manufactures
engravings for stamps; her first Austrian stamp was published
in 2006. At the moment she is busy preparing a new exhibition
of engravings and drawings made in her private studio.


Meerschaum, or sepiolite, is mainly used for the
production of smoking pipes.
It is chiefly obtained from the plain Eskişehir in Turkey, where
it is extracted through mining. Vienna was formerly one of the
centers for the manufacture of meerschaum products until
Turkey banned the exportation of meerschaum nodules for
economic reasons in the 1970s.
One of the best known producers of meerschaum pipes is the
company Strambach, founded in 1904. Special thanks go to
Mrs. Corrieri, who is the manager of the family-run Strambach
company today.
She provided Melanie Haarhaus with a piece of raw
meerschaum and advised her on how best to process it.

The watch glasses in the pieces "Clockwork Good" and
"Clockwork Evil" are original crystal glasses from
antique pocket watches; they have been perfectly reground
by the expert hand of watchmaker Klaus Kraml.

The castings are made in the "fine art and metal foundry"
Schlägl in Vienna. The family-run business is managed by
master goldsmith Monika Schlägl.
The foundry focuses primary on antique restoration,
including for the Vienna Rathaus, Schönbrunn Palace,
the Vienna Opera and the Naturhistorisches Museum, but
also serves Wiener Bronzen and numerous other customers.


Bernd Preiml, born 1973 in Innsbruck, has been a
well-known feature of the local photography scene since the
1990's. In addition to great success in fashion- and commercial
photography, he has given himself space to stage scenarios,
experiment, compose and create computer assemblages.
His narrative photographs immerse the observer in a profound and
obscure world of fantasy. Following a trail off into a fairy tale-like
twilight zone full of dark mysteries, he recaptures the magic of
childhood imagination.


Klaus Fritsch, born in Cologne 1963, studied visual
communications, artistic photography and philosophy at the
Folkwangschule in Essen.
He has lived in Vienna and Halbthurn/Burgenland since 1990,
working as freelance photographer with a focus on
still-life and product
photography.

Further thank goes to:
Wilfried Haas, Alexander Gamper,
Karin und Hans-Jürgen Haarhaus

Maiden’s Prayer and Satan’s Whiskers
are the names of two cocktails.