Venice Design Week 2026: Venice, Baltic Amber and a New Collection

At Venice Design Week 2025, the Italian designer Laura Di Leo received a special distinction from the City of Gdańsk. The result will be a new collection with Baltic amber, to be presented at Gdańsk Jewellery Week 2027, the designer announced during this year's edition of the Venetian event.

Sometimes a single piece of amber is enough to start an entirely new story. That is what happened last year in Venice, where the special distinction from the City of Gdańsk went to the Italian artist Laura Di Leo. The prize took an unusual form: a dozen or so raw chunks of Baltic amber. The material she received became the starting point for a new collection of contemporary jewelry, which will be shown at the next edition of Gdańsk Jewellery Week.

From Venice to Gdańsk

After receiving the prize, Laura Di Leo began working with Baltic amber. At the end of last year she also visited the Amber Museum in Gdańsk, where she took part in a two-day workshop on the basics of amber processing, led by Robert Pytlos, a journeyman amber craftsman. As the designer stresses, Baltic amber is for her a material full of light, history and meaning. These qualities became the inspiration for the new collection.

One of the Most Important Design Events in Europe

For more than fifteen years, Venice Design Week has been one of the most important European events devoted to contemporary design, bringing together designers, artists, curators and cultural institutions from around the world. A distinction awarded during this event carries particular weight: it has once again made Baltic amber part of the international conversation about contemporary design. Its next chapter can already be seen at Gdańsk Jewellery Week 2027.

Gdańsk's presence at Venice Design Week is organized by Międzynarodowe Targi Gdańskie S.A. (Gdańsk International Fair Co.), and the project partner is the Via dell’Ambra Foundation, run by Jola Słoma and Mirek Trymbulak. Międzynarodowe Targi Gdańskie S.A., as the operator of the “Gdańsk – Światowa Stolica Bursztynu” (Gdańsk – World Amber Capital) program, develops international cooperation and encourages foreign designers to work with Baltic amber. The story of Laura Di Leo is an example of how amber from Gdańsk becomes an inspiration for creators from different countries and returns to the city in the form of new projects, exhibitions and collections.