For the joy of making small items
- Mariana creates jewellery with passion for detail
- Her studio Tiska Joyas has been in operation since 2016
- In 2020 she won one of the National Craft Awards of Uruguay
Encouraged by her mother, Mariana Schwedt attended sculpture workshops in her youth, where she found a place to express herself through art. After graduating from Industrial Design, she realised that she wanted to focus on manual design. "The word 'industrial' was too loud to me and I felt that the personal imprint of the creator would get lost along the way," says Mariana. Instead, she trained as a jeweller, combining design and handmaking small pieces of portable art. "I have always loved anything that is about making small pieces and involves fine motor skills. I love the timeless value of these small objects, pieces that transcend generations, not only with material value but with a great emotional value,” says Mariana. “I feel that I generate magic, an object with a lot of symbolic and energetic charge, a small amulet, a talisman."
Interview
- What techniques do you feel most comfortable with?
- I like the application of textures. To apply colour to some of my pieces I use a technique called stone reconstitution, which consists of grinding stones of relative softness and placing the fragments in the cavities of the design of my piece of jewellery with resin. After drying, I file it until it is level.
- How do you approach experimentation?
- I try and experiment with different ways of doing things: constant testing and learning. Together with a colleague and friend of mine, we are starting to experiment with PET plastic pieces (plastic from soda water bottles). Experimentation and re-valuing materials is something I am discovering that I love.
- When do you know that a piece is finished and well made?
- When it does not lack anything. I care that it generates something: an emotion, admiration, intrigue, whatever. Of course, it must be well executed, neat, the finishes, and so on, but I like to see a personal search, the mark of its creator. It has to be made with soul.
- What secrets does your craft keep?
- It has happened that when I am blocked on a challenging piece, I wake up in the middle of the night to draw a solution. I do not even put on my glasses, I just draw in the dark because I do not want to wake up my mind too much. I often put on mantras and music to be able to focus.
Mariana Schwedt Vellano is an expert artisan: she began her career in 2013
Where
Mariana Schwedt Vellano
