Wearable Art Blog

Boticca

Since I've shown some lovely handmade items from artists featured on Boticca recently, I thought it was time to learn more about "the online boutique for unique jewelry and fashion accessories by top emerging designers from around the world."

So, I interviewed the co-founders of Boticca, Avid Larizadeh and Kiyan Foroughi. Avid, who grew up in Paris, and Kiyan, who was raised in Paris and Dubai, actually knew each other before they attended universities in the U.S. Each had a successful career prior to founding Boticca.

Malaga Necklace by Jolita Jewelry 

 

How did the two of you meet?

AVID: We actually met via our grandparents who had been friends for years without us realizing.

What led to your launching Boticca?

KIYAN: It was one of those inspiring moments, when while on a trip to Marrakesh, I encountered a jewelry designer called Miriam. As I talked with her, it quickly became clear that not only was Miriam's jewelry aesthetically beautiful, it also had a valuable meaning and story to it.

With more demand for her work, Miriam went from selling her work in the Atlas Mountains to women in her village, to coming to Marrakesh several times a week to sell her jewelry to tourists. Realizing how few people would get to discover Miriam and her work, we wanted to do something to change that to make it possible for people all over the world to be able to discover Miriam's jewelry and her story. This is how Boticca came to be.

Leather Bracelet by Elvira Sazesh

 

Where did the name 'Boticca' come from?

AVID:The word 'Botica' comes from the old Provencal French word for boutique. Thanks to cyber squatters, the 'botica' with 1 'c' was not available at the time, so 'Boticca' with 2 'c's was born! The meaning is still the same, though.

Even though artisan-produced fashion represents a small segment of the marketplace, more and more online stores are selling it. What do you make of this trend?

KIYAN: More and more, people are looking to invest in high-quality non-mass produced pieces, with an added meaning to them. They are seeking that personal connection with their purchase. This is especially true with jewelry and accessories. Even more so than with clothes. That Boticca allows the customer to build a personal connection with the designer, and to learn their story, is what really resonates with the customer. It is this one-off, personal experience with a piece of jewelry or a handmade leather bag for instance, that people look for when shopping.

Woven Apart Tote by Poupee Couture 

 

What makes Boticca different?

AVID: Unlike many online marketplaces, Boticca is curated. This means that designers are required to submit an application which is then reviewed by our style-hunting team to determine whether the designer and their work would be a good fit on Boticca. To date, Boticca is the only site of its kind specializing solely in accessories.

What does Boticca look for in designers and/or their work?

KIYAN: There are so many criteria and obviously, we look at every designer and their work on an individual basis. The main thing we look for when we review a designer, besides quality, is the unique story behind them and their work. For our style-hunting team, it is also nice to see when a designer has clearly looked at the site to get an idea of the tone and feel, understood the concept, as well as taken a look at the work of other designers when we review their application.

 
Earrings by Shingo Matsushita

 

What Boticca items are most popular right now?

AVID: Shingo Matsushita's knitted jewelry with earrings and necklaces made from the same silk used in Kimonos (above) is proving popular. Also, the chain mail jewelry by Iranian designer JamDesign (below), inspired by Persian mosiac art and ancient body armour, are a true artform, taking the designer sometimes days to create.

How do you see the market for work by emerging desingers evolving?

KIYAN: More people definitely seem to be looking for something with meaning, which they often cannot find on the high-street or from a bigger brand. So, in this way, I think the market is definitely growing and can only get bigger.

What advice might you offer to aspiring fashion artisans?

KIYAN: To believe in themselves and keep doing what they're doing.

Millefoglie Necklace by Madame Framboise

What's coming up for Boticca?

AVID: We try to meet our designers needs and provide for them whenever we can as well as improving the experience for our customers, which means lots of new and exciting features are coming to the site.

Thanks to Avid and Kiyan for doing this interview!

It's great to see a curated site like Boticca focus on designers doing handmade work. I like Boticca's approach of profiling artists and their personal stories so that we can fully appreciate the people behind the work.

You can see more at Boticca.com.

  

 

Textile Neck Pieces by Moldarina

Sónia Nunes, who lives and works in Portugual, designs and makes textile jewelry under the Moldarina label. Her playful work appeals to me in part because it brings back some very fond memories of being in Lisbon and Evora a few years ago and learning about Portuguese handicraft traditions.

I did a short interview with Sónia to find out what's behind her jewelry, which she makes out of cotton or wood beads that she creates and paints.  

How did you learn to make jewelry?

When I had to choose a degree, I was undecided: social education or arts. I chose the first option and worked twelve years (2000-2011) in social housing areas (Lisbon and Coimbra) with people who had complex social and economic needs.

But I never left arts behind because in my spare time I learned how to dance, about decorative arts and designed clothes for my mother to sew.

But the real “cou de foudre” happened six years ago when I experienced the pleasure of creating jewelry after a casual visit at a supply store. My first item was a complex beaded necklace with some textile parts.

Since then, I started a self-taught path where I learned to embroider, knit, crochet, sew, and photograph, among other things. I used the Internet, books, some workshops and the explanations of some kind women to learn about these crafts.

 

Opening Moldarina in 2011 was the outcome of this journey and a turning point in my career, because I decided to dedicate myself full time to this project, leaving behind social education.

I learned that Portugual has a long tradition of textile jewelry making while visiting there a few years ago. Did the tradition inspire you to become a textile jewelry artist, or was it something else?

I think my passion for textiles came naturally with the hours I spent with my mother choosing fabrics and other materials for clothes that I designed in my student years. I discovered textiles as a result of my Internet research for my student project.

How do you make the Complementar necklaces (see the necklace below with the blue tips)?

It takes me many hours to make a Complementar necklace. My first step is to make 80 little fabric tubes with wool felt applications in both edges. After that, I knot them to form 4 threads with 20 fabric tubes. Finally, I assemble them all.

 

 
I'm also curious about your Vestige neck pieces. Do you do the embroidery yourself?

Yes, this is the first time I did machine embroidery (see the white Vestige neck piece, below).

 

Who are your favorite textile jewelry artists? How have they inspired your work?

My favorite textile jewelry artists are Vera João Espinha (with her I learned to simplify/clean my designs), Maria João Ribeiro (with her I learned sensitivity), Margarida Pintassilgo (with her I learned method) and textile artist Dina Piçarra (with her I learned to define my personal style, freedom, and creativity).

What's coming up for you and Moldarina this year?

For me, the challenge is the birth of my second daughter in September and coordinating her care and needs with my work.

For my work, my main objective is promoting and marketing Moldarina. I also want to open an Etsy store, start wholesaling and launch one collection. I'd like to do more things but I know that I don't have time for everything. So, I prefer to choose some things and do them well.

These colorful pieces and fun designs are terrific, all the more impressive since Sónia is largely self-taught. I admire that she held onto her love for the arts and decided to make that her career.

Thanks, Sónia, for doing this interview. I wish you much success juggling the demands of motherhood with your career!

You can see more at Moldarina.

 

 

Wood Show at Velvet Da Vinci

The "Wood" show just opened at Velvet Da Vinci in San Francisco, and it looks to be a great one -- all different kinds of new wood jewelry by 26 artists from around the world.

What I like about these pieces is that a lot of them don't even look like wood. Take the "Vessel" brooch below that's made of wood, paint and silver by Daniel Di Caprio, whose work is inspired by plant and animal anatomy. This piece is so perfectly sculpted and painted that it looks like a barnacle-covered shell that's been smoothed by the ocean.

 

"The Mountain #5" neckpiece (below) is made of wood, shell, and paint. The contrast of a colorful shell attached to a circle of differently shaped pieces of painted wood is stunning. It's made by Edgar Mosa, a Brooklyn, New York based artist, born in Lisbon.

Mosa says: "I became interested in finding alternatives for the passing of time, searching for natural materials that encapsulate a rite of passage...: the rings of growth in wood, the layers of colorful nacre in shell, the blooming of roses..."

Both Julia Harrison and Gustav Reyes (next two artists below) also have work on display at the Racine Art Museum in Wisconsin. The "Out On A Limb: Contemporary Wood Jewelry" show runs through June 17, 2012.

Julia Harrison, who created the "Pops" brooch below, is a Seattle-based artist and writer.  Harrison is known for her eye and mouth brooches that often have a humorous edge. There is so much expression in this carving, it's as though you're actually looking into someone's eye.

Gustav Reyes, who made the "Ad Idem Ring #1" below, is dedicated to preserving nature's infinite beauty. In this spirit, he re-purposes salvaged wood, hand forms his pieces using a cold bending process and then finishes them with beeswax. I love the sculptural aspect to his work, the sensuous curves and his inclusion of a piece of the wood in its natural state.

 

"Red Spiral" bracelet made of wood and paint is by Flora Vagi, who lives in Budapest, Hungary. Vagi likes to work with organic materials, as they all change with time. How can you not be struck by the glorious color and roughly rounded curves of this piece? I like that you can see the knots and lines in the wood.

 

 

This show makes a great case for the appreciation of wood jewelry. The variety of styles and techniques featured is pretty amazing. You can see more pieces from the show at Velvet Da Vinci.

 

 

Eco-Friendly Textiles by Nuno

We've all been reading about eco-friendly and the need to protect the environment. Last week, I heard an inspiring talk by Japanese textile designer Reiko Sudo at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts that made the idea resonate in a way that it hadn't before.

Sudo began Nuno in 1984 to make Japan's "lost art" more accessible to textile lovers in an eco-friendly way. Today, Sudo has 10 people working for her designing and creating fabrics and finished products, like the scarf below.

Nuno combines technology with artistry: "Threads with incompatible shrink ratios are...  tossed into a hot dryer to yield sculptural textures. Metallic films are bonded to conventional threads, then melted to create transparent filigrees. Computer-programmed looms dance to digitally-enhanced African tribal patterns. Chemically-reprocessed Okinawan banana fibre-coated cottons complement laboriously hand-finished synthetics."

Sudo was good enough to bring a bunch of sample textiles created by Nuno for the crowd to oogle (the next several photos are a few of the samples).

The red sample, my favorite, is made with strips of nylon tape stitched into all-over patterns. Doesn't this look like wall art?

 

Sudo came to textile design almost by accident. She wanted to become a kimono artist but didn't pass the entrance exam. Instead, she began to study textile design and became hooked on working with all kinds of materials, including plastic. Her studies became the foundation on which Nuno is based.

What also struck me is that Sudo applies the Buddhist belief of living lightly in the world to Nuno's products. This means reusing scraps.

You can see in the pattern below how Nuno reuses small scraps and combines them with embroidery. Nuno also recycles polyester and nylon into new products in an effort to reduce waste.

The white and black fabric below is made from Kibisio, a rough silk by-product from the hard outer shell of the cocoon. When Sudo discovered that factories typically throw away silk cocoons because they are hard to work with, she figured out a way to create beautifully patterned and textured textiles out of the cocoons to make use of the "waste."

 In 2002, Sudo introduced Nuno Works, which offers handmade products, like clothing, socks, pillows and the scarves and bag shown here. You can even pick your own fabric and have Nuno adapt one of their patterns for you.

The colorful bag below features Entasis-form classical Greek columns on densely woven canvas sail cloth.

Here's Reiko Sudo herself.

What a great example Nuno is setting for the fashion world and consumers alike. You can see more at Nuno Works.

 

 

Knit Accessories from Margot

Here are some great handcrafted accessories - necklaces, collars and headpieces - from the Margot label in Hamburg, Germany.

Jessica Schröder launched Margot in the fall of 2010 after completing her studies in fashion design. She aims to preserve the traditions of crocheting, hand-knitting and embroidery in her work.

The first two photos are from the Enchanged Garden Spring/Summer 2012 collection - colorful pieces that are elegant and a little flower-like for the season. 

Jessica designs and creates the prototypes of all the pieces, which are all handmade in Germany.

The roses from this collection are made of individual knitted petals of cotton yarn with crochet trims. The headpieces and necklaces look adorable together.

Jessica's inspiration for this collection comes from Ernst Haeckel, an artist and biologist from the late 18th and early 19th century who named thousands of newly discovered underwater creatures.

The photos below are from Margot's latest collection, the Put a Bow on It Autumn/Winter 2012/13 Collection. Here, the mood is darker, even dreamy.

I love the old fashioned quality of these photos. The pieces are like classic Elizabethan, but with a modern twist.

Several years ago, Jessica did an internship at an accessory label, where she learned how to use a domestic knitting machine. She began to experiment with different techniques like crochet, which she taught herself from an old book she found at a flea market.

Jessica explains, "I really love to crochet and knit. I think you have so much freedom and possibilities, by creating your own kind of fabric using different yarns and colours etc...."

Her love of craft comes through in these impressive designs. You can see more of this work at Margot or Boticca.