Antika Nueva

From the time I was a tiny little kid, I loved to play dress-up. My mother would take us to the thrift shop to acquire old prom dresses, suits, and whatever took our fancy. Part of the fun was big elaborate necklaces and rings and earrings, and I had a costume jewelry collection from the time I was five!

My parents have collected vintage jewelry since I was very small, and I often dug through my mother's jewelry box admiring the exotic designs and fascinating colors. Modern jewelry (especially modern jewelry of the 70's and 80's) was not nearly as intricate, interesting, or made with as much care and handwork involved.

In 1996 I wandered into a bead shop and was introduced to beads and making jewelry with them. After making multiple pairs of earrings, and giving them to everyone I knew, I starting looking at and playing with wire. I loved the look of wire wrap jewelry, but had managed to break every piece of it that I owned. Snarling to myself that there must be another way, I wrapped…and wrapped…and threw multiple little balls of messed-up wire across the room…and wrapped…and Antika Nueva© was born. I can now make this distinctive wire wrap in 5, 7, 8, and 9 points, and it is virtually unbreakable--at shows, I have demonstrated this by heaving it against a wall!

Since 1996 I have played with multiple media for jewelry, mostly concentrating on wire and beads--beads of glass, beads of stone, beads of mother of pearl, beads of funky vintage plastic and clay and wood. One whole side of my living room is bead storage! I'm constantly on the lookout for new materials to work with, particularly ways of working with wire "cold"--without welding or soldering. I'm as likely to be in a hardware store as I am a bead shop or poring over a catalog.