Sheila Westera’s Uniquely Sophisticated And Luxurious Fine Jewelry Forms A Genre Unto Itself

Whereas many jewellery designers and makers produce work that’s artistically spinoff, mass marketed and coveted for materials quite than creative worth, Swiss-based, Holland-born Sheila Westera is an unparalleled jewellery artist who creates refined jewelry-making methods and designs which can be instantly recognizable as hers, and hers alone. Having pioneered proprietary; patented methods for weaving, wrapping and sculpting sterling silver, 18-karat gold or 14-karat gold-filled wire round each conceivable gemstone and laborious stone, Westera is making distinctive contributions to the narrative of jewellery historical past.

“In a jewel,” Westera explains, “I prefer to see the character and the hand of the artist; their thoughts or values. I by no means actually understood how a hoop could possibly be seen as stunning when it solely options an incredible sensible reduce diamond,” she says. “I see this extra as a standing image, a jewel that’s purely pushed by materialism.” Having labored for upmarket and heritage jewelers in Amsterdam, Holland, for years earlier than launching her collections, Westera is a gemological and jewellery skilled with an modern imaginative and prescient and uncommon technical finesse. Fairly than showcasing mega-beautiful, excessive value gems, Westera’s oeuvre embodies compelling gems of earth and sea, (in addition to irresistible discovered objects), which can be actually enrobed in elegantly woven, draped and exactly formed wire.

Specializing in jewels that look extra like valuable artifacts made by mysterious beings from distant lands than branded luxurious jewellery merchandise, Westera retails on her website, her Instagram gallery and storefront on www.1stdibs.com. Alongside along with her three collections which can be titled Dialog Items, Arty Scenes and Purely Wired, Westera additionally enjoys fulfilling customized design commissions. “I give shoppers the choice to select from my assortment of gems, semi-precious stones or pearls,” she explains, “they usually choose both 14-karat yellow gold-filled wire, 14-karat rose gold crammed wire, 18-karat gold wire or sterling silver wire.”

As a longtime gemstone collector, Westera explains, “At the moment I take advantage of each stone or pearl that speaks to me, reduce, uncut, semi-precious or valuable, for the Dialog Items assortment, which consists primarily of cocktail rings, and necklaces. That is my most glamorous assortment, the place every stone needs to be as pure as attainable, in addition to sustainable, vintage, or classic. About 90 to 95 % of my stones are utterly pure, and the remainder had been purchased or sourced years in the past, after I was in quest of a sure form or coloration.”

Westera’s Dialog Items assortment abounds with dramatically sculptural shapes which resemble miniature and very elegant fowl’s nests that comprise compelling gems. Weaving wire round numerous gems or pearls in order that her gems of earth and sea seem nestled inside finely woven miniature baskets, Westera’s rings and pendants seem like natural supplies which were skillfully formed into refined artworks. Due to her technical finesse, there’s nothing “craftsy” concerning the kinds and ideas animating Westera’s designs. Certainly, lots of her items in sterling and gold wire embody the fluid kinds and wonderful textures of textiles woven of pure gold or sterling thread. 

In her wearable art work assortment, Arty Scenes, Westera explains, “I take advantage of any sort of materials that I discover attention-grabbing. It may be a particular gemstone, discovered supplies, porcelain shards, wooden, steel, faux gems, or textiles with which I’m capable of specific myself. I like to emphasise the great thing about our planet Earth.” Within the realm of Arty Scenes, Westera can specific what she refers to as her “activist aspect.” Three of Westera’s most compelling (and patented) design methods and types embody Possessions, Aware and Embrace, through which she ‘units’ her hand-selected stones by skillfully securing them with wire. Collectively, these kind the bottom of her Dialog Items assortment.

“Once I lastly began working with extra valuable metals,” Westera recollects, “it allowed me to seize the stones that I had collected throughout my journeys internationally or at jewellery gala’s. I invented the Possessions approach to seize the stones that I needed to put on near me and for my mates who needed to put on valuable stones near them. I’ve been striving to develop distinctive methods over time. I’m at the moment difficult myself in numerous designs, and creating my purest kinds inside Dialog Items. I additionally like to mix totally different stones inside the similar jewels and develop several types of settings. I do preserve developing with new methods and kinds, and these are patented.”

In accordance with Westera, “Purely Wired began as my artistic outlet, as a helpful exercise in instances after I had a artistic block. I used to be caught on one thing in my different collections, so I began creating earrings to get into the temper of issues. These are simple, distinctive and lightweight weight, good for carrying on my travels,” she explains. “I additionally gave away many to family and friends, who obtained them enthusiastically. In order that’s how I began the Purely Wired assortment, and I got here up with the idea for Purely Wired rings final 12 months.” After years of working towards, Westera says, “I can now create a pair of one-of-a-kind earrings in underneath one and a half hours, in the event that they embody a easy model.” Whereas it’s a problem to kind them identically and mirror their shapes, Westera admits that their imperfections are a part of their appeal. “I would like every bit to be completely distinctive and I form them in keeping with my each day moods. Some days they’re extra elaborate, extra summary or much more simplistic than others.” Within the remaining evaluation, what issues most to her is that, “They should have a particular character, and to be balanced.”

When creating a hoop for the Purely Wired assortment with a stone, she explains, “It must be mild in weight as a distinction to my weightier Dialog Items rings. I would like Purely Wired rings to be created in underneath three hours and to be inexpensive one-of-a-kind items.” Concerning her manufacturing schedule, Westera notes that, “Solely after I’m fortunate, can I create a hoop in at some point. To have the ability to do this, I’ve to be in the precise mindset. Every time that I create a one-of-a-kind ring, it’s fairly a course of, which I like, and I do get higher at it.” For instance, she notes, “Every stone virtually requires a barely totally different model inside the Possessions approach. Typically I prefer it to be extra intricate and wonderful, and different instances it’s extra open and has a uncooked attraction.” When she begins making a hoop, Westera both finishes it that day, or places it apart to proceed work on it over a time period. “I’m spending roughly between 6 to 12 working hours on a bit,” she says.

Regardless of her declare, “I by no means needed to be a jewellery designer, it simply occurred,” Westera has developed right into a profoundly prolific designer/jeweler. “I solely needed to create jewels that I want to put on myself, even when it was solely in a dream-like setting,” she recollects. The actual fact is, Westera spent a lot of her youth working round upmarket gems and jewellery designs. “Whereas nonetheless at college, I helped out serving espresso on Saturdays within the excessive finish jewellery firm the place my stepmother was a supervisor for a few years,” Westera says. “I later labored for that firm full time.”

While finding out artwork historical past and structure at college in Amsterdam, Westera took a gross sales job in a prestigious diamond and wonderful jewellery firm there. Discovering that promoting wasn’t for her, she transferred to the after-sales division of that very same agency. “I handled jewellery and watches, which was nice for rising my data base,” she relates. “I realized all the pieces about how and the place jewels had been made, and their many variations in high quality. I labored carefully with numerous goldsmiths, stone cutters, stone setters and watchmakers.” At a sure level, Westera needed to depart and work within the wonderful arts sector. “As the corporate didn’t wish to let me go, they provided me the positions of designing the decor for his or her large window shows, and protecting monitor of their jewellery inventory. I used to be additionally doing a normal jewellery training course and finding out stones. Throughout this era, I used to be engaged on and off at a couple of different excessive finish jewellery corporations.”

When she lastly began making jewellery, it was extra of a cathartic train than an utilized arts pursuit, for Westera’s first jewels had been made from litter that had washed ashore on the seaside close to her vacation home, or detritus that she had collected elsewhere. “To start with, I made virtually unwearable jewellery as a strategy to specific my emotions about air pollution and my love for the setting. It wasn’t about adornment within the first place.”Pioneering her proprietary steel wire methods, she remembers, “I actually cherished that historic, and virtually unskilled end, a naive means of working. I noticed that I appreciated to create constructions,” she continues. “I like constructing, and I needed every of my stones, pearls and so on. to be held solely by wire. I’ve practiced and perfected my approach over time,” she says. “I’ve by no means used glue to maintain my stones in place, as I like issues to be as pure as attainable in each means.”

Whereas conceptualizing what she calls her “extra glamorous items,” Westera explains, “I wish to show {that a} jewel doesn’t want an ideal or a high-end stone, as I would like my work to be a symbiosis of a stone and its distinctive ring design. Every jewel ought to have its personal distinctive character. Up to now,” she explains, “I haven’t had the need to work with diamonds, however I’d sooner or later, mixed with 22-karat gold, so long as the diamonds come from an authorized sustainable supply.” Sustainable considering and residing is one thing that has at all times come naturally to Westera. “I’ve at all times loved being in nature, being harmless amongst flowers, the birds and the bees.” The organically woven and bejeweled wilderness of Westera’s designs materially embodies and visually communicates this love of nature, proving as soon as once more that jewellery can serve symbolic functions past mere adornment.