Sien began as a forgotten childhood dream
When my first design appeared behind my closed eyes in 2021, it brought back memories of how I used to spend my quiet childhood days: making beautiful, intricately crafted things—treasure boxes, picture frames, dresses for my dolls, handbags, but most of all, jewels. The shinier and curlier, the better.
A love I had berried deep under aspirations of becoming scientist. It wasn't until life shook me up - and showed me how short it can be - that I reconnected to the crafty, meticulous lover of curly shapes and shiny stones in me.
The Name
Sien is dedicated to my grandmother, Geziena Bakker— known as Sien (pronounced "Seen"). A very intelligent and quietly spiritual women, passionate of handicrafts and antique fashion, who never got the chance to express her gifts fully.
I closed my eyes and saw gold
In 2021, I was a psychology researcher and teacher at the University of Amsterdam. I had just finished my degrees in Neuroscience, Neuropsychology, and Social Psychology. Completely disconnected from my creativity, I had spent six years following my fascination with the human and collective psyche—but I was no longer sure it was the right path for me.
Barely recovered from PTSD after a tragic accident that nearly killed me,
I was struggling to cope with losing most of the vision in my left eye and with the constant, heavy feeling that life might never feel safe or free again.
After a deeply healing therapy session, I walked out feeling like I had shed a heavy load of fear and grief. I took a walk by the water, closed my eyes, and saw the golden silhouette of a woman's body with a shiny red gemstone in place of a nipple. A flowing, feminine shape that became the first piece I made when I started smithing two years later.
I drew the shape as soon as I got home, and from that day on, I felt the urge to draw every day. Sometimes jewelry, but most days mandalas—intuitively, from the center. I started most mornings this way, letting the geometric, flowering shapes unfold like a meditation.
I slowly began to reconnect with my childhood dream of becoming an artist and jewelry designer, and eventually started my goldsmithing training with my teacher, Hans van der Leen, in Utrecht. There, I learned to work with fine gold wire, assembling pieces through traditional soldering techniques—held in place with clay, just as it was done in antique jewelry-making.
In my designs, which still come to me intuitively, I recognize the curly shapes I used to love as a child, along with the geometric and organic forms I drew in my mandalas. I’m inspired by the patterns and proportions of sacred geometry (the Sien logo follows the proportions of the Flower of Life) —the geometry of harmony and organic growth. A sacred framework where science and nature—mind and spirit—unite.
Gold is my teacher,
Smithing my meditation.
Gold—a strong and enduring material, largely unaffected by time or external forces—helps me find alignment and clarity. When I work with gold, I too become more steady and unaffected. I often get into a meditative state where life slows down and everything feels still and lucid.
This is why I love working with gold wire. I treasure the time I spend shaping gold by hand, from raw material to finished design.
The ancient Egyptians called gold “the skin of the gods”, believing that wearing it granted access to the sacred.
To me, sacred means intentional, heart-centered, and soulful—acting with mindful, loving presence, purely for the beauty of the act itself and the experience it brings.
This is how I create, and it’s the feeling I hope to inspire in everyone who encounters Sien Sacred Jewels.
Thank you for your presence and interest.
With love,
Sabine