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Published on January 30, 2008

Over the last three decades, Heinz Tabertshofer has built up quite a menagerie of crystal animals. His designs for Swarovski include a panther, the Green Rosella jonquil, a gecko, an elephant and the Nanuc polar bear.

"I've worked with the company for 30 years now. I started in the technical department and worked up to the moulding department and for the last 10 years I've been a designer. I went to art school before but I didn't handle crystal until I joined Swarovski," says Tabertshofer, who was in Bangkok last week to promote the 2008 "Annual Edition Pandas Bears", the first in the Swarovski Crystal Society "Endangered Wildlife" trilogy.

Tabertshofer has been firmly rooted in the natural world for as long as he can remember. "I love the wild. I spend a lot of time in the forest, which is very close to where I live. Nature gives me the energy to my design. When I'm stressed, being in the great outdoors helps me to relax. That's how I get a feeling for nature, which affects both my work and my daily life," says the Austrian-born designer.

The new collection follows the example of the Swarovski Water School, which was founded in Austria in 1999 and aims to develop the awareness of children about environmental issues with a particular focus on water. Through this project Swarovski hopes to share its core values with ¤2 (Bt96) from every product sold in the "Endangered Wildlife" trilogy being donated to the "Water for Nature" programme.

This year, the project's theme is the "Living Yangtze" and the aim is to improve the management of water resources in selected areas in more than 400 towns along the Yangtze River and help both the resident and the fauna in an area where diversity is threatened. Swarovski's Annual Edition features a mother panda and her baby, both in facetted transparent and Black Diamond crystal.

These adorable animals are truly captivating and seem full of life thanks to their vivid facial expressions and classic poses. The gentle duo appears exactly as they would in the wild, with the mother holding a branch of matt crystal bamboo and the cute panda cub holding a piece of his favourite food - a bamboo branch. The Panda Charm Bracelet has been designed by Tabertshofer as well and will be available this year only.

"The panda is such a cute animal and it's so unique. I read everything I could find about them and observe their behaviour at the zoo. They are fascinating to see in real life holding the bamboo stick," he says.

With its gentle nature, the panda has become the symbol for the protection of animals whose very existence is threatened with fewer than 1,600 in the wild. The panda spends most of the time eating, so it is not a very active animal.

"For me, the most difficult is bringing depth to the animal. I always make a lot of drawings and it's very important to study the animal and get a feeling for it. I try and bring that to the sculpture.

"In the case of the panther, the most important impression is one of movement. For the panda, it's the eyes. I always study an animal's anatomy then create the mould in clay or wax to make it as natural as possible. Then I work it into a more abstract form because I have to cut it and make it into a single piece," he says.

Tabertshofer usually observes his subjects at the zoo, either in Vienna or in Munich. Sometimes he travels further afield. He's visited a protected sanctuary in Bulgaria to learn about birds threatened with extinction and met with scientists to learn about animals and the environment and how to protect them.

The nature lover says his favourite leisure activities are cycling, hiking, and mountain and climbing and that he gets upset when he sees animals in a cage.

"It's hard to describe the feeling because I love to see animals roaming. But I know that zoos are the only possibility to bring animals close to man and to allow us to learn about them. That's not to say it's right. I still think they'd be better in the wild," he says.

"When I was working on the elephant collection, I learned a lot about that marvellous animals. I could see they respected each other, how they took care of the young ones and how sad they were when one of the herd died. You can look at their eyes and see when they are happy or sad.

"It's very important to protect environment and work towards cleaning the air and water, not just for the animals but also for humans. Without the animals, whether pandas or insects, people cannot survive. We must keep them safe and stop them from dying off," he stresses.

Kupluthai Pungkanon

The Nation