Creating New Collections

Every year in March, my mother Musi and I travel to Brazil for two months. Brazil is a country that deeply resonates with us, but also a place that feeds our creativity, where our spirit is nourished and where we are able to produce work like nowhere else. Away from distractions, a busy life, and surrounded by unimaginable beauty, we design and create prototypes for each of our new collections!

This is such a great way to spend time together, creating and being able to bounce off of each other's creative juices, in one of our favorite places on earth. We both find that we are so much more relaxed, inspired and productive in this rustic sanctuary!  With very few tools and no power tools, we make prototypes which we then finish in our own studios in California. Working with no power tools has limitations, but we enjoy the challenge of having to find workarounds. 

We don't use artificial lighting so we get started early in the morning and work as long as the light permits. Our table is set up in an area surrounded by glass, so we not only have a lot of light, but also have amazing view of nature! We have a raspberry plant right outside the window so we get to see a lot of colorful birds that come to eat the fruit, as well as horses which have owners but roam free on the land and love to come graze by our house, it is such a treat! 

People always ask me about my creative process and what inspires me. Aside from nature which is my greatest inspiration, for me inspiration can come from the most random things; from a paintings on a ceiling, at a museum, a design on a rug, moroccan lamps, dance class or architecture.  A lot of times I choose a stone size I want to work with and design around it until a new piece is born. Sometimes I know exactly what I want to do and execute the piece, others I start on the piece I have in mind and end up doing something totally different! I used to draw my designs, but nowadays that is the exception, I prefer to see where things lead once I decide on a stone.

This year I was repeatedly warned by friends to watch out for snakes, because there are a lot of poisonous snakes in the area. Breeding season had just happened  so there were a lot of baby snakes which are highly poisonous.  We had to walk around with heavy rubber boots to avoid any unwanted adventures. This constant watching out for snakes inspired me to make a couple of snake pieces this year which I am excited about, look out for them in late Summer early Fall! 

Once I get back to my studio in California, I will use my power tools to do the finishing work on pieces. Once finished I send them to my caster  who then makes molds and multiples of my pieces. The casting company I work with is a small woman/family owned company in California. It takes about 2 months to get my pieces back from the caster. That is when I get to work on doing production. Sometimes pieces work exactly as I envisioned, but sometime my idea doesn't work and I have to work on new ways to put them together until I find the right solution. This is a process I don't like to do when I have time pressure as it only makes things worse, but overall it is an exhilarating process!  

Once I finish a new piece I always wear it a couple of times to test it out and make sure that there aren't issues that need to be addressed. People who see me in dance class often get to see the new work before anyone else as this is a perfect testing ground! 

Feel free to ask questions in the comment section if there is something I haven't covered that you are curious about :)

Warmly,

Vanessa