Thoughts on craft.
Making is a process of curiosity, understanding and skill.
Slowing down the process by which our minds expertly categorise objects as ‘known’, and learning to ‘see’ more intimately reveals more beauty. Almost allowing the space for your mind to play tricks, that render something known into something new or mysterious again, even for a couple of seconds. These moments can give birth to a whole new perspective, direction, idea.
Sometimes it’s the process of working with the raw materials that lends new insight into both the physical world and our own inner worlds. The time taken to translate thoughts into forms, to understand a medium or material can be the most healing and interesting. I think looking at the world through a creative lens lends itself to cultivating a natural care towards the environment and respect for resources.
Appreciation for craft has trickled down to me through the women in my family. Knowing our way around a needle and a thread connects me to my ancestors. My mother told me about my great grandmother living simply and remotely in the mountains all her life. Among her many daily tasks she used to make fine shawls. We still have one, something we treasure and marvel at. She spun her own yarn from the wool of the sheep that my great-grandfather tended to, on the lower slopes of snow capped mountains. The shawls were a simple necessity in the cold winters and yet they were handknitted with pride and care, with delicate scalloped and patterned edges, the fabric so light that a shawl could be pulled through a wedding ring. Every craft requires care, curiosity and skill, but the fruits of this labour are passed through many hands and are treasured for lifetimes.
Thinking about craft through the lens of history creates a sense of romance for simpler times. Although many of the processes around jewellery making have remained relatively similar for centuries, continuing forward it makes sense to create work that is of our time, that reflects our current tastes and innovations. Today the tools we have at our disposal have evolved, but the effect of that state of flow through creation remains. Leaning into elements of digital and handmade throughout the design process of these collections felt appropriately challenging and grounded in the current world.
One of the joys of designing jewellery is that it’s only function is to bring joy and to mesmerise, what it comes to mean over time is completely personal and unique to the one who wears it.
-Izabella