The work of the goldsmith Christa Lühtje unites the qualities of craftsmanship with the unconscious yearning of the human being for precious things. The pieces she crafts in her workshop come to life through a universal validity of expression underlined by a clear and uncomplicated language of form. Her work is precise, yet never boring. It is like the newly discovered jewellery of a highly advanced civilization – simply because her outstanding skill as a craftswoman is capable of satisfying her high aesthetic standards. Ever since she has been making jewellery, she has been able to give visual expression to the fascination which gold has for her. Her strong feeling for style has never been shaken by passing trends. This sureness stems from a highly developed feeling for the material coupled with her unbroken enthusiasm for jewellery and the making of it. Her jewellery is always noble, never loud or ingratiatingly glossy, and yet never inconspicuous either. Christa Lühtje relies on the timeless validity of the material with which she works. She was the very first goldsmith to use pure gold in the making of her jewellery, forging it to the required strength and hardness. And in those cases where fine gold (this is the technical term for pure, unalloyed gold) could not be used for technical reasons, Christa Lühtje has, from the very beginning, always used 900 gold, a hard alloy which comes closest to fine gold. Her sureness of style never lets her work sink into the banal. Indeed, her work is a wonderful example of how handmade jewellery radiates a liveliness that can never be matched by the stifling perfection of its mass-produced counterpart, no matter how well the latter may have been made.
Peter Hassenpflug
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