Happy Saturday, all! I don’t usually do Saturday posts, the brief for which is fairly open. So, I decided that today I’d put together an interview with one of my favourite designers and beady friends. Many of you will be familiar with Rejetta Sellers’s wonderful work – her fabulously detailed and dinky polymer beads and her gorgeous jewellery designs, which regularly appear in Stringing magazine. I’m always impressed by (and a little envious of) the way she brings together diverse elements, the ingenious methods of combining and connecting, and the harmony and balance she achieves in each piece. And her polymer beads are amongst my very favourites. She sells both in her Etsy shop. So, anyway, over to Rejetta….
jewellery you made?
cross-stitch, historic costumes, scrapbooking, etc. One day I spent extra time
looking at everything my local craft store sold. There were some pretty beads
on sale; lovely ball beads made up of maroon crystals. I strung them on a
beading chain and my mother took the necklace off my neck and said I couldn’t
have it back. Of course, I had to go buy more beads to make another one and I
just never stopped buying beads.
I found out I am a microcosm person. I like the
tiny details in the world. With polymer clay I can manipulate, twist and sculpt
on a tiny scale. And the biggest benefit with two young children is being able
to leave a project, come back later, and it hasn’t dried out or become
misshapen.
beads?
detailed woodland animal beads that I make. In other bead artists I love the
artful details, whether it is a crackle finish, texture, intriguing color combinations,
or the shape of the bead.
every type of jewelry I see. I am mostly drawn to rustic, organic, free flowing
designs. I enjoy jewelry designers who create with passion in their work. It is
all such eye candy. I might challenge myself to venture into minimalist,
romantic, Goth, phrase jewelry or bead weaving but I usually feel most
comfortable stringing with beads, fiber and chain.
jewellery designer who has particularly influenced your work?
and jewelry designers. I guess it is my thirst for unique pieces for my own
work. For polymer beads it is Christi Friesen. She captured my attention with
her techniques. She wasn’t doing polymer clay like I had seen before: caning,
using molds, applying paint. She mixed the colors she wanted with the polymer
and shaped it all by hand. And that is how I do my polymer pieces, too.
jewelry designer that is a favourite.
Each artist is different in design and materials used. I learn something
new every time I look at other artist’s work. A few favourites: Slash Knots for
a lovely boho style, Lorelei Eurto for her fearless use of colors and texture,
Sparrow Salvage and My Selvaged Life for the post apocalyptic style that I am
crazy about right now, Quisam for the feminine grunge look, and the romantic style
is Tied Up Memories. The list really could go on and on…
arrive at them by playing around with what you have in your stash?
Sometimes a design comes to mind and I dig through my beads to make it. I do a
lot of sketches when I am travelling or can’t get to my stash of beads right
away. But most of the time I will open my containers of beads and create a
piece around one artisan bead.
as messy as the next persons! Sometimes ideas come so fast for a design, I may
has 2-3(or more) jewelry designs in progress at any moment, a laptop fitted in
there somewhere, new artisan beads that have arrived that are not put away yet,
several blobs of polymer clay either left over from a project or halfway
through a new design, and most wonderfully, my kid’s art work. And in amongst
what others see as chaos I see a world of jewelry potential.
Art beads are art. I am holding a tiny (remember
I LOVE tiny) masterpiece in my hand. Some of my art beads have me so under
their spell I don’t want to create with for fear I’ll have to let it go. Some
whisper in my ear what jewelry design they want to become. And that whisper and
need to horde happens to every person who buys an art bead. They are a
fingerprint of the artist’s personality.
