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JEWELRY

Below The Fold:

INA
BEISSNER

15.04.2025
BY RACHEL HODIN
Ina Beissner isn’t the kind of creative who rattles off a list of inspirations on cue. The Berlin-based jeweler is far more introspective—drawn less to external references than to the emotional instincts and cultural influences she carries within. It’s not that she lacks key reference points, she just tends to feel most inspired when looking not outward, but in. Which makes sense given her background. Though now based in Berlin, Ina was raised between Germany, Mexico, Peru, and Colombia—and her fine jewelry line, which launched in 2011, reflects this rich medley of cultures.

Her work strikes a careful balance between clean European minimalism and the more expressive, ornamental aesthetics of South America. Of the latter, it’s Pre-Columbian jewelry—that is, the ancient adornments of Indigenous peoples across the Americas before the sixteenth century—that captivates her most. The bold and architectural forms of Pre-Columbian nose adornments, for instance, have directly informed some of her most recognizable designs: the tubular, open-ended Core ring, punctuated by pear-cut diamonds on either end; the disk-shaped Dossier ring; and the Luma earrings—a series of slender, hoop-like earcuffs in different sized oval and circular silhouettes that, when layered, rapturous helix that spirals up the ear.

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PORTRAIT OF INA BEISSNER AND THE SPRING BRACELET

The stick-like closure of the Chika hoop earrings is similarly influenced by tribal design, if more modern iterations. The sticks come in various styles that you can buy individually—some in pure gold, others finished with a single turquoise, emerald, or ruby gemstone—and interchange whenever the mood strikes.

“What I love most about Pre-Columbian jewelry,” she says, “is how graphic, clean, and surprisingly modern many of the pieces feel.” Indeed, the intricate details and use of color throughout Pre-Columbian artwork is truly astounding, but for Ina, it’s not just the visual beauty that resonates—it’s also the symbolism. “Gold wasn’t just decorative,” she explains. It represented “purity, transformation, and the sun.” That final comparison, the sun, feels especially fitting.
One of the most distinctive features of Ina’s work is the hypnotic way her pieces interact with light. Her signature high-gloss finish—which, like all her pieces, is crafted exclusively from recycled 18k gold—seems to radiate light from within, as if it had swallowed the sun. But perhaps even more compelling is her subtle placement of diamonds, a choice heavily influenced by artist James Turrell (one of her rare external reference points). Many of Ina’s rings are round yet flat-sided, with stones set not on the top but on the side. She refers to this as “diamonds on the side,” yet they’re anything but secondary. Frankly, these diamonds are more like the main course.

“It’s hard to choose a favorite Chikka, but the medium size is definitely my go-to for everyday wear. The graphic APOSTROPH verison makes them truly unique.” Ina Beissner

Take the Dossier cutout ring, which features an asymmetric slash that gives the illusion of two rings in one, with side-set diamonds of one half facing the glossy, unadorned side of the other. The result sparkles with the diamonds’ mirrored glints, creating an indirect, incandescent light that’s hard to come by. You’ll find that same indirect light—just multiplied tenfold—in the Spring bracelet: a series of oval flat-sided gold wheels, with diamonds on one side and high-polished finish on the other, linked together with just enough space between them to refract and release a brilliant, preternatural glow.

These are the sort of pieces that make you look twice—and then again, maybe tilting your head to catch a better view. They’re subtle tricks of the eye that invite you to linger. They’re hard to describe and all the more intriguing for it, echoing that famous Keats line, “Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter.”
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INA BEISSNER’s collection of dossier rings, AND THE SIGNATURE CHIKKA EARRINGS IN VARIATIONS

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