Iris Tsante is a Greek jewelry designer, based in Athens, Greece. She studied traditional jewelry techniques in Athens between 1998 and 2001. In 2008 she graduated from the jewelry department of Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam, Netherlands under the guidance of Iris Eichenberg, Manon van Kouswjik, Hilde de Decker, Evert Nijland, Erik Mattijssen. During her studies she worked at Manon van Kouswij'ks studio, which resulted a major influence in her own artistic path. She has exposed her work in one solo (Galerie Ra, 2011) and various group exhibitions and fairs throughout the world. In the Netherlands she was represented by Galerie Ra and currently she is represented in the USA and Canada by Charon Kransen Arts.
Iris was among the organizers of B-Side Festival, an art jewelry Route through Amsterdam, for the years 2010 and 2011.
Iris describes jewelry as "...a process of exploring ways to define the senses of “beauty” and “value” in reference to memories of significant objects and the subsequent human/social connections related to them. It is a dialectic process since it involves the direct or non-direct communication between maker, wearer and viewer. My pieces create connotations of optimism, lightness, simplicity, joy and innocence, revealing on the same time qualities such as fragility and vulnerability. They often are characterized by a “mischiefing” tendency, sometimes in harmony with the qualities of the original materials and sometimes making contradicting statements upon more “formal” and “serious” symbols of the western dress code".
The most recent works of Iris Tsante take the theme of the chain as their starting point. Traditionally, we perceive the chain either, in the field of jewelry, as a functional element with a neutral color, essential for highlighting the main subject of a pendant, or, with a broader social perspective, as something heavy, rigid, symbolically associated with the restriction of freedom, slavery, etc. In Iris' work, the chain becomes the central theme, ceasing to be merely a functional part, and turns into an autonomous work of art. The form is liberated—both at the level of the link and the overall shape—resulting in works that acquire plasticity and create either abstract forms or forms that may resemble depictions of toys, faces, or eyes. Wood has been chosen as the material, characterized by both plasticity and lightness, while the use of color, in a dialectic relationship with the forms, lends the works a strong visual quality.