Northwest Folklife Vendor Spotlight: Amira Jewelry
We are almost there and winding down with interivews! Here is one with the fabulous Amira Jewelry. Read on to learn more about the woman behind the amazing art that is Amira Jewelry.
Tell us a bit about yourself. Where are you from? How did you get started doing what you do?
AJ: I grew up in Connecticut. My mom is from Switzerland and is also an artist. My Dad is creative and is one of the best people I know with whom to sit and talk about an idea, watching it evolve and grow into something magnificently fantastical! I have been making jewelry since I was 14 years old. My first job was at a bead store in Norwalk, CT. After graduating from Purchase College in NY, I went on a 5 and a half month adventure in South America. It was in Argentina where I rediscovered my love of making friendship bracelets! I also am so drawn to the colors and patterns of South and Latin American cultures.
What would we find in your refrigerator right now? Be honest! :)
AJ: Lots of leftovers! We save every scrap of leftover, even to the point where it's really not enough for a meal. So, there is often a meal of samplings that don't really go that well together, but taste awesome on their own! Milk, juice, soda, four different kinds of mustard, cabbage, carrots, deli meats and cheese.
Who has been most influential/supportive in your craft?
AJ: My parents! And my boyfriend! Sometimes he is more excited to tell people what I am doing than I am!
If you could be a superhero, what would you want your superpowers to be? These can be crafty-powers too!
AJ: I want the ability to sew as fast as superman flies! I'm actually intimidated by the sewing machine, but often think of projects that I want to make that involve using a sewing machine.
How do you find inspiration and/or get out of any creative slumps?
AJ: Leaving my daily surroundings helps rejuvenate my creative drive. Just doing something different, an activity I don't usually do during the week, or visiting a new place, these things give me a perspective and remind me that being creative is about experimenting, trying something new, learning. Nature inspires me. Other designers and other mediums of art inspire me. Food inspires me. My preschool students and the AMAZING art they create inspires me. Yes, I teach preschool four mornings a week and I love it!
Aside from being a creative master, what other hats do you wear?
AJ: I am a preschool teacher. I began working with young kids about 8 years ago at an art school in Connecticut. I love connecting with kids, understanding their thought process, relating our confusing adult world to their imaginative world, and playing! I love taking photographs, painting, drawing, cooking and spending time in the forest. I'm not sure if I could ever wear only one hat. I like the variety in my life and I think all of my passions influence, inspire and strengthen each other.
If you could trade places with any other person for a week, famous or not famous, living or dead, real or fictional. with whom would it be?
AJ: I would like to be one of my students, live a week as a four year old. But, only if I could come to my current age and remember the entire experience. That would be a real trip!
Is there a handmade item that you cherish most? If so, tell us about it.
AJ: There are two objects that come to mind. As part of my application to an art school in New York City, I made an artist's book with various collaged images, paint, photographs, ink drawings, yarn, and created a hand sewn pouch for this large book using leather, silk, velvet and stones. It is very special to me. The images on it's pages are emotional connections to the moment I was in then, a time of vulnerability and uncertainty, and also realization and the beginning of something new and different. It is a relic of part of my past.
I also cherish a macramé yarn purse I made while traveling through Bolivia, Peru, and Argentina. I used newly learned knotting techniques, and yarn from the States that I had brought mixed with yarn that I bought in La Paz, Bolivia, hand dyed by a local craftsperson. I spend many bus rides covered in long strings knotting away! And finally I finished it! Just when my boyfriend and I found an apartment and settled for two months in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Is this your first time at UCU?
AJ: Yes! This is my first time and I am so excited! Many of the talented and wonderful crafty vendors at the Crafty Wonderland Holiday Sale in Portland, Oregon last year shared great things about the UCU shows. I am proud of myself for making the effort and giving myself the confidence to apply to a UCU show. It is also a commitment that I am making to being a professional artist, which is bold and beautiful! I feel lucky to have the opportunity to be part of such an incredible group of talented, hardworking and spirited creative people. I think I am only nervous about having enough awesome jewelry and pleasing my customers!
Tell us something unknown about you/your company... do you have any secret talents? Lets hear a random/fun fact!
AJ: Once my boyfriend and I decided South America was where we wanted to travel, we planned on volunteering with children in Buenos Aires, Argentina at the end of a three month backpacking trip around Argentina, Chile, Bolivia and Peru. I wanted to have something to give to South American kids and families we met along the way. So, I began making some small friendship bracelets here in the States and continued making more while traveling on buses in South America. One of the first stops we made was in Bariloche, a small mountain town on the Western side of Argentina. It was there when I first saw artists in the town square selling their macramé bracelets. It was then that I wanted to learn how to make better knotted work, better than the bracelets I had started to make for the kids. Before these travels and even during, I never thought it would evolve into a business and a way of life for myself. We met some lovely locals and travelers along the way. I hope they still have the bracelets I gave them, the first from the AMiRA jewelry Collection, and, I like to think that we are in their thoughts.
