ABOUT

 A poem consists of words and the silence in between

(Martinus Nijhoff)

 
This sentence was hidden on a wall around the corner from me when I returned to live in Leiden after a period of living in France. When I read this, I recognized my own work. What I create only truly gains its value through the one who wears it and their feelings about it. This is inextricably linked. I try to capture the silence between the words and at the same time create "space" for the wearer.

I feel comfortable with more than just the traditionally used materials for jewelry. I think I got that from the Art Academy; thinking outside the box. My preference for jewelry comes from the fact that jewelry is worn. It is a kind of marriage between art and utility object, with the absolute bonus of the sentimental value that the wearer gives.

In 2006, I graduated as a Jewelry Designer from the Art Academy in Maastricht. After graduating, I worked as a drawing and CKV teacher at Bonaventura College in Leiden. In 2009, my husband and I left for 6 months to Asia. This trip turned out to be the starting shot for setting up my own jewelry label upon our return. The first collection was a fact in 2010. Since then, I have participated in several exhibitions and fairs in the Netherlands (including Sieraad Artfair, Meesterlijk, Show Up) and abroad (including Invasie Antwerp, Early Bird in Hamburg, and Ventura Lambrate in Milan). Besides my own jewelry line, I have always made commissioned work, such as wedding rings and birth gifts. But also promotional gifts, such as a necklace for Denham the Jeanmaker, and various collections for museums such as the Rijksmuseum and Museum de Lakenhal.

In 2023, I made the decision to stop making my own jewelry line. For various reasons, both personal and business-related, but also perhaps especially due to the urge to really tell stories again that get a stage and the attention to be heard or seen. I celebrated the farewell of my collection. "Rajouir le feu" with a party and there the melting down of the jewelry that was left as a breeding ground (and literally the material) for what was to come. Jacques Brel sings it so beautifully in "ne me quite pas" that the best harvest comes from burned ground.

And then... and then... slowly an atelier and studio is forming where the jewelry is the foundation but the story is the guiding principle.

With small collections like recently connecting a collection to the bridal couture of Edwin Oudshoorn, many private commissions but also excursions to more free work and conceptual collections like Terra (in)Cognita or my presentation "NON" during the Art Route of 2023

is continued and they lived happily ever after :)