Jens Høyer Hansen (14 July 1940 – 10 August 1999)Telford, Helen. ''Suter Art Gallery Magazine'', 7 April – 7 May 2000.
The Jeweller's Mark: The Jens Hansen Workshop Story
Thompson, Emma. ''The Prow'' 2009.
Jens Hansen
was a Danish-born jeweller who settled in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

and did most of his well-known work in

Nelson, New Zealand (Let him, who has earned it, bear the palm) , image_map = Nelson CC.PNG , mapsize = 200px , map_caption = , coordinates = , coor_pinpoint = , coordinates_footnotes = ...

. Hansen was one of a number of European-trained jewellers who came to New Zealand in the 1960s and transformed contemporary jewellery in the country, including

Tanya Ashken Tanya Ashken (born 1939 in London, England) is a New Zealand silversmith and sculptor. She was one of a number of European-trained jewellers who came to New Zealand in the 1960s and transformed contemporary jewellery in that country, including J ...

Kobi Bosshard Kobi Bosshard (born 1939 in Uster, Switzerland) is a Swiss-born New Zealand jeweller. Bosshard was one of a number of European-trained jewellers who came to New Zealand in the 1960s and transformed contemporary jewellery in the country; others ...

and Gunter Taemmler. He was the designer and creator of the

prop A prop, formally known as (theatrical) property, is an object used on stage or screen by actors during a performance or screen production. In practical terms, a prop is considered to be anything movable or portable on a stage or a set, distinc ...

ring used as The One Ring in

Peter Jackson Sir Peter Robert Jackson (born 31 October 1961) is a New Zealand film director, screenwriter and producer. He is best known as the director, writer and producer of the ''Lord of the Rings'' trilogy (2001–2003) and the ''Hobbit'' trilogy ( ...

's ''

The Lord of the Rings ''The Lord of the Rings'' is an epic high-fantasy novel by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, intended to be Earth at some time in the distant past, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's boo ...

'' and ''

The Hobbit ''The Hobbit, or There and Back Again'' is a children's fantasy novel by English author J. R. R. Tolkien. It was published in 1937 to wide critical acclaim, being nominated for the Carnegie Medal and awarded a prize from the '' ...

'' film trilogies.

Life

Born in

Gram The gram (originally gramme; SI unit symbol g) is a Physical unit, unit of mass in the International System of Units (SI) equal to one one thousandth of a kilogram. Originally defined as of 1795 as "the absolute weight of a volume of pure wate ...

, Denmark, in 1940, Hansen moved to New Zealand with his parents and siblings in 1952. After undertaking a traditional jewellery apprenticeship at Sweeney's Jewellers in

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

, he held his first solo exhibition at New Vision Gallery in 1960. He then returned to Europe and worked at A. Michelsen, the Court Jewellers, and the small Borup workshop in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

between 1962 and 1965. He also attended night courses at the School of Applied Arts & Industrial design, Copenhagen. He married Gurli Winter in 1965 and they travelled to New Zealand together, and opened their first jewellery business in Glen Eden, Auckland before moving to

Nelson Nelson may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Nelson'' (1918 film), a historical film directed by Maurice Elvey * ''Nelson'' (1926 film), a historical film directed by Walter Summers * ''Nelson'' (opera), an opera by Lennox Berkeley to a lib ...

in 1968. His first workshop in Nelson was initially in the couple's own home in Alton Street. He then moved to Hardy Street in 1970, and then to its current corner Selwyn Place and Trafalgar Square location three years later. In 1975 he received the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council travel grant to work as a guest at the Goldsmiths High School, Copenhagen, and left New Zealand again for two years. Upon his return to Nelson with Gurli and his two sons Halfdan and Thorkild, he became instrumental, with Gavin Hitchings, in establishing jewellery classes at Nelson Polytechnic (now Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology).Dover, Mic. ''Nelson Mail'', 18 July 2009.
An artist's life among the elements
During the 1980s, he served as an advisor on the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council of New Zealand, and was a founding member of Details, the Jewellers, Bone and Stone Carvers of New Zealand. In the early 1990s he served as the Artist in Residence at

Otago Polytechnic Otago Polytechnic was a public New Zealand tertiary education institute, centred in Dunedin with additional campuses in Cromwell and Auckland. Otago Polytechnic provided career-focused education and training, offering a range of New Zealand accr ...

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...

. Across his lifetime he exhibited widely in over 30 solo exhibitions, and participated in a large number of group exhibitions in New Zealand, Australia, and Europe. In 2021 ''Polygon'' highlighted that, "While the

One Ring The One Ring, also called the Ruling Ring and Isildur's Bane, is a central plot element in J. R. R. Tolkien's ''The Lord of the Rings'' (1954–55). It first appeared in the earlier story ''The Hobbit'' (1937) as a magic ring that grants the w ...

may be Jens Hansen’s global legacy, evidence of his broader artistic impact on New Zealand art and culture appear throughout the island nation. 'He introduced emerging jewelers and silversmiths to workshop methods and forms of modernism through the Danish lens,' ustineOlsen told Polygon. In 2004, the national museum

Te Papa The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa is New Zealand's national museum and is located in Wellington. ''Te Papa Tongarewa'' translates literally to "container of treasures" or in full "container of treasured things and people that spring fr ...

added some of his early pieces to their permanent collection. Hansen also recruited and taught many next-generation jewelers and artists, through summer painting and sculpture classes at the local polytechnic, local workshop demonstrations, and offering bench space to any jeweler who asked".

Notable works

Jens was known for his creative and contemporary take on traditional Scandinavian jewellery design. Some of his notable works include: * "The One Ring", an 18kt gold ring

for ''

The Lord of The Rings ''The Lord of the Rings'' is an epic high-fantasy novel by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, intended to be Earth at some time in the distant past, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's boo ...

'' and ''

'' film trilogies.Milos, Lily. Middle Earth News 9 October 2012.
Forging The One Ring: An Interview with Halfdan Hansen
* The Jens Hansen Legacy Collection (formerly the 40th Anniversary Collection)Phillips, Hazel. '' Idealog'', 2009 (19), p. 22.
More true rings
" * Two silver jewellery pieces retained in permanent collection of

Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa is New Zealand's national museum and is located in Wellington. ''Te Papa Tongarewa'' translates literally to "container of treasures" or in full "container of treasured things and people that spring fr ...

, New Zealand's National Museum. * The Golden Kiwi Pullar, Jess. ''

Stuff.co.nz Stuff is a New Zealand news media website owned by newspaper conglomerate Stuff Ltd (formerly called Fairfax). It is the most popular news website in New Zealand, with a monthly unique audience of more than 2 million. Stuff was founded in 20 ...

'', 4 November 2015

* Super Rugby Trophy

The One Ring

's Art Direction team first approached Jens Hansen in March 1999, asking him for a design that would have the power and presence of the fabled ring in

J. R. R. Tolkien John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (, ; 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philology, philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''. From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was ...

's story. Fifteen prototypes were submitted, all characterised by Jens' sculptural simplicity of design, and each of a different gauge, weight and finish. From this prototype collection, the final 'Movie Ring' design was chosen. Forty variations of The One Ring were needed for filming – from solid gold versions for petite

Hobbit Hobbits are a fictional race of people in the novels of J. R. R. Tolkien. About half average human height, Tolkien presented hobbits as a variety of humanity, or close relatives thereof. Occasionally known as halflings in Tolkien's writings, ...

fingers, to the spinning ring filmed for the prologue of the first film. The ring filmed for the films was not made with any Elvish inscription. The inscriptions that appear in a few special moments in the ''Lord of the Rings'' trilogy were computer generated in post-production. In ''The Hobbit'' films, no Elvish inscriptions are ever revealed. In 1999 he was diagnosed with cancer, and died in August of that year, before having the opportunity to see his rings in the films.

The Jens Hansen workshop

Jens-hansen-jewelry-workshop-320-trafalgar-square-nelson-new-zealand

The Jens Hansen Workshop in Nelson is located on the corner of Trafalgar Square and Selwyn Place. Jens Hansen set up his first Nelson workshop in his and wife Gurli's home in Alton Street, Nelson in 1968. It moved to Hardy Street in 1970, and then to its current location three years later. Jens' eldest son Halfdan Hansen runs the Jens Hansen workshop, which is known as Nelson's most established and only internationally acclaimed artisan jewellery workshop.South, Gill. ''

New Zealand Herald ''The New Zealand Herald'' is a daily newspaper published in Auckland, New Zealand, owned by New Zealand Media and Entertainment, and considered a newspaper of record for New Zealand. It has the largest newspaper circulation of all newspapers ...

'' 13 October 2013.
Small Business: Company culture – Halfdan Hansen
Today, two qualified in-house jewellers Zane Colegate and Simon Colegate re-create Jens' original designs and using modern jewellery making techniques design new Jens-inspired jewellery pieces. Today, people come from all over the world to visit the Jens Hansen workshop, the workshop having become well known after Jens Hansen designed and made The One Ring for ''The Lord of the Rings'' and ''The Hobbit'' film trilogies.

The Legacy Collection

The Jens Hansen Legacy Collection marks four decades of timeless design. The Legacy Collection is a selection of authentic designs recreated by hand from Jens' original production notes and includes classic experimental Jens pieces. Jens' work always had a constant undercurrent of Danish architectural simplicity, but he liked to continually push the design boundaries. To mark the 40th Anniversary of Jens Hansen in Nelson in 2008, specific designs were selected, whose form had endured and defied fashion, but that had not been made for decades. These were recreated as the Legacy Collection. Every year around the time of Jens' birthday, the collection expands.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hansen, Jens Hoyer 1940 births 1999 deaths People from Haderslev Municipality Danish emigrants to New Zealand New Zealand jewellers Deaths from cancer in New Zealand