It’s not that she has been forgotten – as so many other women in the design world have been. Nanna Ditzel became visible and recognized early on, and a handful of books and films have already portrayed her work. However, there’s more to discover, and Anne Cathrine Wolsgaard Iversen’s intriguing and beautiful book opens a world of modernist jewelry art for its reader.

Above all, Wolsgaard Iversen is adept at interpreting and describing inspirations and the gradual development of ideas in Ditzel’s work, allowing readers to understand why it is so cohesive. There are many organic shapes taken from nature – water lilies, drops, feathers – or from the past: axes, yeast wreaths, Egyptian ornaments. And there’s Ditzel’s clear fascination with inlaid enamel, cluster constructions, and convex metal surfaces that capture light. One sees how sketches from museum visits inspire jewelry years later. And one watches jewelry gradually emerge from sketches and small models in modeling wax.

The first chapter positions the jewelry within Ditzel’s broader work and her life journey. Even though the subsequent chapters focus on individual pieces in chronological order, they often provide a broader context. Like when Finn Juhl in 1954 sent Ditzel a letter saying he had recommended her to Georg Jensen “because of my criticism” of the company’s line and because she had “produced something both imaginative and well-crafted”. You get a sense of how intimate the Danish design environment was and how directly central figures could influence others’ careers.

It’s also interesting that a jewelry competition organized by the Goldsmith Trade’s Joint Council in 1950 gave Ditzel her first significant push. While on maternity leave with her firstborn, she molded models in Plastilina clay and, together with her husband Jørgen, created the collection that won first prize. This led to her first collaboration with A. Michelsen. The competitions continued in the subsequent years, even though there had been disappointment with the standard of the goldsmith trade – a small piece of history now relevant again as the National Arts Council is attempting a competition to stimulate talent in the jewelry field.

Ditzel undoubtedly garnered attention because she dared to rethink what jewelry even was. She often worked in silver, a more democratic material, and also experimented with new materials like glass or rubber. She was far ahead of general taste but fortunate that there was a high ceiling at Georg Jensen at a time before calculations and profit dominated everything. She was also continually attentive to usability and managed to create sumptuously voluminous jewelry that was still light enough to sit neatly on clothing.

These are pieces that stand out and occupy space – and it’s interesting that still so few people dare to be so conspicuous. Ditzel herself didn’t believe that one could deliberately create something timeless; things had to become that way if they were good enough. And looking across all her work – made easy by the illustrated register at the end of the book – it seems that these are pieces still a bit ahead. One could easily imagine a new audience for the organic earrings and rings that once again resonate with today’s yearning for nature.

The book can withstand many years of close study and is a welcome addition to the design library. However, we still miss books that contribute to a new and more detailed map of the vast network of the design world, going beyond just the big stars.