Jewelry as a Device for Becoming: Viola Pineider of ARC
Jewelry, for Viola Pineider, is not just an ornament. It is a proposition—a way of thinking through the body, material, and space as sites of continuous transformation. Born and raised in Florence, she trained for over a decade in traditional Italian carpentry and wood restoration. This background gives her rare material intelligence, grounded in rigor, patience, and deep respect for craft.
As the founder of ARC, she works at the threshold of jewelry and sculpture. She transforms reclaimed wood and silver into bold, architectural pieces that challenge conventional ideas of luxury and permanence. Now based in Rio de Janeiro, her work balances the disciplined lines of Italian design with the fluid, experimental energy of Brazilian culture. A 2025 OFTF Award Honoree, Pineider is part of a new generation redefining contemporary jewelry. We sat down with her to talk about transformation, slow making, material resistance, and jewelry as a device for becoming.
Defining Practice
NYCJW: How would you describe your practice and the world your work inhabits?
VP: My work moves between two complementary worlds: the body and space, where jewelry becomes sculpture and sculpture becomes jewelry. I have a long background in Italian carpentry, so my work is a synthesis of solid technical training and a visionary approach. I transform reclaimed wood into pieces that invite tactile journeys. Each creation balances dynamic shapes with impeccable finishes. For me, jewelry is a powerful escape from societal standardization. It is a way to reimagine the body as ever-changing and full of possibility.
Projects in Waiting
NYCJW: Are there projects or pieces you’ve put on hold? How do you know when the time is right for them to come to life?
VP: Actually I have kept several projects on hold. Sometimes due to lack of time, because they were large-scale works or required travel and significant financial investment. But they are waiting for me. I always return to older projects; they are never forgotten. There is a right time for them to materialize. There is one sculpture in particular that I rushed to finish for a very relevant open call, but due to its fragility it was not possible to submit it to the competition. Still, it exists, and it will find another place in my professional trajectory.
Imagining Beyond Form
NYCJW: If your practice weren’t limited to jewelry or sculpture, what other medium do you imagine your work taking?
VP: My work would be a lyrical piece of music that, out of nowhere, turns into noise-industrial, then glides softly into an R&B atmosphere, ending with the drums of a carnival party. A convergence of opposing sensations: intimacy and repulsion, stillness and rhythm, balance and exuberance.
Challenging the System
NYCJW: Is there a prevailing belief or convention in the jewelry or design world that you challenge?
VP: I disagree with a system that fails to respect the quality of work and instead favors visibility, closed circles, and networks of favoritism over merit and research. I do not believe that one should devalue their own work to sell more. I also reject the logic of constantly launching new collections in a market already saturated with objects. I deeply believe in slow production. It is a way to reclaim time, attention, and quality—not as a marketing strategy, but as an ethical and political stance toward making. Producing less, with greater rigor and awareness, is, for me, a form of resistance.
Creative Doubt as Dialogue
NYCJW: Can you share a recent moment of real creative doubt and how you navigated through it?
VP: As an artist, I experience creative doubt continuously. This does not stem from a lack of creativity, but from having to engage with the problems that matter itself presents, as well as with unforeseen situations. Pieces can break and so can patience. Fatigue is sometimes intense, and doubt often emerges less from the work itself than from questions of purpose and market strategy. For me, creative doubt is not a blockage but a negotiation. I move through it by staying with the process, allowing the material to lead and accepting failure as part of the work. I do not experience a lack of creativity; I am creating all the time. Even moments of uncertainty inevitably take me somewhere else, to another solution, another form, another understanding.
Designing for the Imaginary
NYCJW: If you had the chance to design a piece for a fictional or historical figure, who would it be? How would you imagine it taking shape?
VP: I imagine a female figure who belongs simultaneously to the past and to the future. I see her positioned atop an installation. It is a tall, subtle sculpture that elevates her above everything, granting her a 360-degree view. On her arms and around her neck, she wears jewelry as if it were a shell. A layer of protection and, at the same time, an expansion of the body. From the ends of the bracelets and necklaces extend long filaments, reminiscent of tentacles, sensory extensions that help her float in the air and swim through water.
Material as Narrative
NYCJW: Are there unconventional materials, objects, or ideas that are currently inspiring you?
VP: I have always chosen wood as the central material in my work, despite feeling a strong attraction to glass and metal, precisely because of their almost alchemical properties and because they present qualities opposite to those of wood. These materials often remain in the realm of observation and inspiration, without necessarily being incorporated into the process. What happens instead is that I end up pushing the limits of wood, bringing it closer to metal through form, or to glass through fragility. I am interested in exploring how far a material can go when taken to the extreme of its symbolic and structural possibilities.
The texts and readings that permeate my creative universe come from contemporary and modern thinkers who reflect on the construction of other possibilities of existence, on transformation, and on the imagination of alternative worlds. Authors such as Donna Haraway, Ailton Krenak, Rosi Braidotti, and Ursula K. Le Guin are among the references that continuously nourish my work. Science fiction, as well as trans-feminist thought, imagines other bodies: bodies in mutation and, at the same time, bodies that reclaim an ancient wisdom that has largely been replaced or erased. In this tension, I see a key for thinking about a new way of understanding bodily adornment,not as ornament, but as a device for transformation, adaptation, and the re-enchantment of the body.
Provoking Questions
NYCJW: When someone experiences your work, what feelings or reflections do you hope it sparks?
VP: I would like the work to provoke questions and uncertainties. However, when we work with art, it is not possible to control the reactions, interpretations, or sensations it awakens in the audience. The experience of the work is completed precisely within this open, unpredictable field, where each body and each gaze produces its own meanings.
NYCJW: What’s one question you wish more people would ask you about your work?
VP: I would like the questions to address the process and how I arrived at a given result. I believe this would help the public understand the complexity of the work. This process is not limited to the stages carried out in the studio. It involves the creative journey as a whole. The collection of the wood, which in most cases comes from dumpsters, urban waste, or demolition materials. If it were possible to follow the origin of the material, one would understand how visionary the work is, beyond its technical execution. To observe the structure of a discarded door, dirty covered in layers of paint, and still imagine another possibility of existence is a central gesture of the work. It is about transformation: imagining solutions, projecting other uses, other bodies, other worlds.
Transformation, Movement, Sensuality
NYCJW: Looking across your body of work, is there a recurring theme, idea, or emotion that continues to surface? What draws you back to it?
VP: The recurring theme in my work revolves around transformation, movement, and sensuality. The forms I create are twisted and hollowed out, sometimes organic, sometimes sharp and geometric. They operate within a field of tension between seduction and repulsion. This contrast reflects an underlying conflict between a rational origin of form, inherited from a Western mode of thinking in which I was raised, and my lived experience in Brazil, where the straight line dissolves and gives way to curves, circles, and spiral structures.
We’re grateful to Viola Pineider for sharing her insights, inspirations, and creative journey. Through ARC, she continues to redefine the boundaries between jewelry and sculpture. She transforms reclaimed materials, form, and perception into pieces that invite exploration, reflection, and transformation. Her thoughtful, visionary approach reminds us that jewelry is not just adornment. It is a device for becoming—a way to reimagine the body, the material, and the world around us.
About One for the Future (OFTF)
One for the Future celebrates visionary designers shaping the next generation of jewelry and creative industries. Each year, honorees are recognized for their innovation, craftsmanship, and unique perspectives, gaining opportunities for mentorship, exposure, and connection with collectors and industry leaders worldwide.
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