Renate Erlacher is an Austrian artist with an academic background in German Studies and Philosophy (MA) and a PhD in Psychology, having studied at Vienna University, Ohio University, Harvard University, Alchimia in Florence, and the jewellery school in Idar-Oberstein. She has lectured for GSL in Vienna and served as a guest professor at Koryo University in South Korea. Before turning to jewellery, Renate also designed handbags—one of which was acquired by the German Leather Museum—and this transition into wearable art became the natural next step in her practice. Her bags and jewellery have been exhibited internationally, with presentations in Paris, Bayreuth, Milan, Venice, Nice, Chicago, Legnica, Bucharest, and Trieste. In 2019, she was awarded a design prize at Venice Design Week.

“Jewellery entered my life late – yet with great intensity.
I am a maker of contemporary jewellery and want to give birth to pieces (unique pieces, one of a kind), that I consider beautiful. It gives me great pleasure to create and make jewellery by transforming my ideas into real objects, using my own hands and skills. Jewellery making for me is a wonderful process of unfolding, it opens windows into new worlds to me, it pushes me to new limits, it challenges me – and it makes me very happy.” - Renate Erlacher