It began, as many things do, almost by accident. Helena Rohner was living in Italy when she signed up for a short jewellery course. “I started a chance - I was in Florence for a year,” Helena says. When she moved abroad to study politics at the London School of Economics, she continued with evening classes in the city. “Then when I finished the degree, I carried on making jewellery.”
A few years later, she crossed paths with the jeweller Jacqueline Rabun. Something clicked. “I realised that this kind of jewellery that I wanted to make - that wasn't gallery jewellery, but wasn't too commercial either - had an audience.” Her pieces began to travel - to Barneys, to Japan - and so did she. Eventually Helena settled in Madrid. “And I think it was the right choice.”
The city has shaped her practice in quiet, profound ways. “Since I never really studied jewellery or design, I had to be side by side with the woodturners, the stone setters.” Learning happened through proximity, through the daily act of making. “And indirectly, it was a very good way to remain local. It meant I could control what I was doing and was able to see the faces of the people who were making my pieces.”
Her studio has remained small, by design. “We’re seven people, and we walk to pick up things from the makers.” This year marks three decades since she began - 30 years of designing, collaborating, and evolving alongside a network of workshops, many of which have been with her from the start.
The studio is set back from the street, in the oldest part of Madrid. “It has lots of cobblestones and it feels a bit Austrian, because at that time the kings came from the Habsburgs. It’s a really nice area, like a little town.” Her home is just 500 metres away. “For me, it gives a fantastic quality of life.”
Inside the studio, there’s a calm rhythm: the making room, a small shop, and a light-filled office. “I always wanted to have a shop - it’s always interesting when people come in to see how they look at pieces or how they wear them.” She speaks with care about the importance of timelessness - of a silver bracelet made today sitting effortlessly beside one from five or ten years ago. “There’s continuity and there’s newness, but it always needs to be classic.”
Scents drift through the studio: lavender, thyme, bergamot. “Sometimes you need fresh fragrances, and other times you need calming ones - scents are very important to me.” A moodboard gathers fragments of inspiration: “vintage jewellery that I find… postcards of exhibitions… a piece of string… a key ring that I think the shape is interesting.”
In conversation, Helena often returns to the idea of essence - of distilling a form down until it speaks clearly and holds its own. “I think the jewellery is better made, much more polished and thought-out and perfect if it isn’t over-designed. They should be interesting in the sense that they’re three-dimensional.” Her fascination lies in how materials relate to one another. “One gives value to the other, or one absorbs the light and the other one reflects it. There’s a game of light and shadows.”
Helena’s collaboration with TOAST grew from a shared sensibility - an appreciation for slowness, for making with care. “TOAST is very broad in its way of looking at the collections, I feel like pieces are put together to create a whole world.” From her years of selling pieces, she has seen her customers gravitate to the more minimal pieces, while others are drawn to colour. “The Danes never buy necklaces, but they buy a lot of earrings and rings. The British buy a lot of blue… Madrid tends towards warmer colours… Barcelona tends towards more blues and greens.”
Most mornings, Helena walks through the old part of town to reach her studio. Afternoons are spent at home, where she sketches and reflects in a room overlooking the rooftops. “In order to design, I need a bit of silence,” she says. The rest of her time is grounded in her neighbourhood - visiting exhibitions, watching contemporary dance, catching the late light across the city’s pale stone façades.
Helena wears the TOAST Stripe Cotton Seersucker Boxy Shirt and Stripe Cotton Seersucker Patch Pocket Skirt.
Discover Helena Rohner jewellery.
Words by Alice Simkins Vyce.
Photography by Mikel Bastida Aldeiturriaga.
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