6 Minutes @ Friedrich Wille

Since its establishment by Michaela Frey in 1951, FREYWILLE has undergone continuous conceptual development and transformed itself from a small and purely Austrian manufacture to a business that is active around the world. And now the throne had passed on to Friedrich Wille, the CEO of the brand together with the brand Creative Director slash wife Simone Grünberger-Wille and the artistic team to create a contemporary visual language with an ever-stronger identity that is all its own. Wille told mylifestylenews how the brand's evolve in the past and now during his short holiday visit in Hong Kong recently.

FREYWILLE was founded in 1951 and creates artistic precious fire enamel jewellery with a very limited production in a manufactory and guarantees the highest quality standards in design and fabrication.at the original address in the centre of Vienna. 

It was then recognized as the global leading jeweler of artistic enamel with the unique and colourful designs, it stand out by filling a niche in the luxury jewellery market.

With over 60 years of the establishment by bringing reformation to the company that was founded on the principles of hand crafting wearable art in the finest enamel, the brand was born due to the passion of the artist and designer Michaela Frey for fine enamel works and the growing popularity of her lovely floral designs led to the development of a brand worldwide expansion.

The original FREYWILLE style was a brand new style of enamel ornamentation and high quality fire enameling techniques. It was created in the 1980’s by a team of young designers, goldsmiths and experts of fine enamelling.

I took over after the founder passed away in 1980 and became the sole owner for the brand and developed a new, academically trained design team under the direction of Simone Gruenberger-Wille who modernised the FREYWILLE designs while holding on to the traditional highly developed company values and excellence in artistry. 

FREYWILLE is 100% privately own. Over the 60 year of development, FREYWILLE has led to our presence of 100 flagship boutiques over 4 continents as of today.

The jewelery that we produce both lives from and speaks of this insight: on a laugh evoked by the daringness of a color composition, of the feeling of joyful passion elicited by a successful painting of nature, of a seemingly enchanted memory recalled by a single well-drawn line.

We use the radiant colours of our enamel technique and the creative power of our imaginations to create a miniature, shimmering new work of harmony in every piece of jewellery. It is also a homage to the miracles of this world and to their colorful bounty.

It is always a desire for FREYWILLE to use its creation to make visible that which is wonderful about human existence, not just the beauty of nature in all its glory but also of that magic in the things that only the perspective power of the heart can allow to shine. 

The emotion, the humanistic, education in history, the old Latin world and the old Greek philosophy,the people influence as well as the aspect of art speaks the language of our heart and in which it describe FREYWILLE style.

We create a value that money can't buy : the love aspect, being in paradise is the heavenly joy, the pure happiness in simplicity, and the nature and the simplicity in art .That are part of the core factors in FREYWILLE.

Artistic design is the focus of every piece of FREYWILLE jewellery. Each new collection is proceeded by continuous inspiration and original research in art history. Whether independently drawn collections or homage collections of world-renowned artists, each detail is the result of passionate design and careful research. The genesis of a new collection takes up to two years from the initial concepts and drafts to the launching.

FREYWILLE's unique technique of fire enamelling unrivalled technique sustains pure, vivid colours throughout the enamelling process. 

Step #1 Precious enamel (liquid glass) is the very basis of FREYWILLE jewellery. Special colour combinations solely used by FREYWILLE guarantee true colours in consistent tones. 

Step #2 Enamel is applied and burned in several layers, whereas each layer of colour requires a certain mixing proportion. In total, the grounding, applying, cleaning and firing requires 80 – 100 working steps and 

Step #3 The finished piece of enamel, a fragile colour intensive plate, is fixed in special gold mountings (24kt or 18kt gold) or mountings of rhodium-palladium.

FREYWILLE designs often pay homage to renowned artists and ancient cultures. They are deeply symbolic and capture original elements of their inspiration. Homage to featured artists include, Gustav Klimt and Alphonse Mucha, who are representatives of the art nouveau style, the controversial philosopher and architect, Hundertwasser, who astonished the whole world with his unique buildings and signature style onion towers, as well as interpretations of the beautiful romantic impressionist works of Claude Monet’s Iris Water Lily and Poppy flowers.

Older collections, such as the Venice collection feature construction elements of the most significant buildings in the city like the Doge’s Palace and the Clock Tower, symbolized by the

Lion of Venice. The Egypt collection features the Ankh while the Greco-Roman Collection depicts the Hellenistic Lion. The Contemporary Art collection shows bold geometric shapes

representing famous New York landmarks including Manhattan and the Chrysler Building and is popular with the men’s accessories.

The fun and playful Ode to Joy of Life Collection embodies the joy of living in its many expressions and emotions. This summer, FREYWILLE was launching the cheerful Floral Symphony collection as a tender tribute to nature and its magnificent splendour. At the same time it’s a homage to the Parisian Impressionists, Baroque Flowers and to First Love. The new and daring Spirit of Africa collection, takes us to a continent of old cultures, lavish nature and unique wildlife.

In celebration of FREYWILLE’s 60th anniversary in 2011, the luxurious logo collection Magic Sphinx has been launched. The Sphinx has been the symbol of our company as a logo since 1999 and is an emblem for creativity and freedom. She embodies the dreams of mankind, the power and elegant majesty of a lion, and the ability to fly like an eagle. Our deeply imprinted company values and continuous strive for creativity are embodied by the symbol of the Sphinx.

Globalization is what we would like to achieve, meanwhile, the focuses are on Europe, Russia, middle east and China. Since 2011 we opened two boutiques in the United States (in New York and Beverly Hills) and we looking into Japan market gradually.

Low yield production with exclusivity is our principal, we are here to make people by creating not just precious jewellery with passion but also a piece of art.

Brilliant colors in used and our unique enamel technique always has been FREYWILLE design DNA and has never been changed since. Thus, there is none or any closer competitors that could produce the same as what we do till date.

The theme of our collection is the harmonization of the content and form combines with the beauty of the radiantly colorful individual designs to produce a lasting cheerful feeling in the observer.

People who wear FREYWILLE are well educated, they love the culture and they are the individuals with special own taste.

My favorite possession is this IWC watch that gifted by my wife and I have been wearing it since 1/2 year ago. 

My ideal way of a living lifestyle is to get the balance in the professional work and private life. Human relation is equally important and in fact it is more than just being in wealth.

" I believe that art diverts our attention from everyday life,. Living with art enables us to live in higher spheres and significantly adds to our quality of life. Seeing the good and the beautiful in everything around us makes us more positive, interesting people and connects us with one another." ~ Friedrich Wille.

mylifestylenews @ Friedrich Wille