Delicate and Precious
Aurum’s award-winning Icelandic jewellery designs in downtown Reykjavík
Bankastræti 4 in central Reykjavik is one of the best spots in town. It houses a unique shop: Aurum. Its windows are filled with beautiful jewellery designed by award winning designer, Guðbjörg Kristín Ingvarsdóttir, along with colourful and interesting articles from all over the world.
Like a breath of fresh air
Aurum’s jewellery pieces are notable for their fine details and delicate nuances, giving a feminine touch but, at the same time, a light and modern appearance. When 
Guðbjörg introduced her jewellery to the market, it was like a breath of fresh air. These pieces were something new and different but yet very Icelandic, as the inspiration and motifs are taken from Icelandic nature.
The mountains, flowers and the glacier
Guðbjörg comes from Ísafjörður, a fishing town in northwest Iceland. The high mountains, the long and narrow fjord, glittering in the moonlight or sunshine, the dark winters and the tiny flowers next to a cold glacial shield, are reflected in her delicate but yet strong and powerful jewellery.
She trained as a goldsmith and jewellery designer at the Institute for Precious Metals in Copenhagen. While she was studying, she visited her home town in summer and climbed the Drangajökull glacier. The tiny flowers there, fighting for their lives, had a great impact on her and became the inspiration for her first flower line. These designs have become like Aurum’s logo.
After three years abroad running a cooperative design shop, she came home to Iceland in 1999. She founded Aurum, with her husband, Karl Jóhann Jóhannsson.
Guðbjörg has taken part in many international design exhibitions both as a solo designer and as a part of a group. She was awarded first prize 
in the jewellery competition ‘Spirit of the North’ in St. Petersburg in 2000, received the DV Cultural Award in Reykjavik for Art Design 2002 and the Visual Arts Award design in 2008. In 2011, Aurum received the Njarðarskjöldur award for Best Tourist Shop of the year. Articles about Guðbjörg and Aurum have appeared in many different international magazines and very recently, in the Swedish magazine, Elle Interiör.
New nature motifs every year
Guðbjörg is very productive and launches 2–5 new lines every year, now adding up to over thirty altogether.
She is an enthusiastic angler and this year, she introduced her salmon jewellery and the ray, which used to be typical food in her home town. Recently three birds were presented: the swan, the raven and the falcon.
She is now working on a new and different line in cooperation with a reindeer farmer in Greenland. She now makes a necklace and bracelet range from silver and reindeer hooves. These pieces will first be shown in a special exhibition in Reykjavik and then launched in the Design March festival in Reykjavik in 2015.
Porcelain and international design
The Aurum jewellery shop is like fairytale world. Showcases full of fine, delicate and detailed silver objects are so inspiring and beautiful that it is hard to resist buying one. But, in the next room is a colourful, different and exciting design shop run by Guðbjörg and her husband. There one can buy interesting Icelandic design items as well as various things from countries all over the world. Special socks from Japan, perfume from France and porcelain decorated by Guðbjörg in cooperation with the Finnish design studio, Elinno. There are also candles designed by Guðbjörg in cooperation with Popup Paris. In three of the candles are hidden 0.15 carat diamonds. Only one of them has been found as yet.
Guðbjörg Kristín Ingvarsdóttir Karl Jóhann Jóhannsson
Designer, Cofounder Business Development, Cofounder CEO
E mail:[email protected] E mail [email protected]
More info at www.aurum.is
Instagram.com/aurumjewellery
Pintest.com/aurum
Aurumjewellery.tublr.com
Twitter.com/aurumjevellery
Steinunn Harðardóttir
Háaleitisbraut 111 108 Reykjavík
Sími 8208782
