Today we bring you a fresh new face in the world of jewelry design: Vika Mayzel. She’s a young, Ukranian student of Design at the prestigious Shenkar College of Engineering and Design in Israel and, from Prague, works with jewelry that has personality, full of textures and natural materials. Her work is inspired by reptiles, and architecture and it contains a combination of shapes that are dripping with originality. Vika let’s her intuition guide her and her feelings are the leit motiv of her work.
Here at So Catchy! Where Fashion Begins, we’ve been blown away by the strength of her creations and recently we had the pleasure of interviewing this promising young talent.
SC!: Your style is very heterogeneous, different styles…. what do you want to say with your work? Can you tell us what your motivation is in a few words?
VIKA MAYZEL: I think my pieces are sort of eclectic way to express the feelings. It can be, for instance, some dramatic event, memory about my grandparents or belief in some superstition. In my jewelry pieces I connect different natural materials such as leather, wool, horsehair, glass and etc. One can say that all those are traditional, but not new. However, I can find a lot of power in these materials and connecting them together, I am trying to create a new and unique piece of art with my own story behind.
SC!: Your inspiration comes from…
VM: Nature and reptiles, contemporary and gothic architecture, Egon Schiele drawings. One can notice some black color, or special connection knots and other details in my pieces, textures and also how a smooth body is often complemented by geometric and sharp lines.
SC!: Describe the person you would like to wear a piece of yours.
VM: I can imagine the person wearing my jewelry as some who is an art and design lover, with a lot of passion and intuition. Someone who has likes to make a statement through style and loves to mix and experiment.
SC!: What has been your greatest success till now?
VM: Just 9 months after moving to Israel I applied and was accepted to both famous Israeli schools of design, Shenkar and Bezalel. As a new immigrant from a small town in southern Ukraine, I could hardly imagine my dream coming true so fast. Now, being a graduate of the well-known Shenkar College, I believe that has been my biggest success so far.
SC!: What are you doing now and what’s your next step?
VM: For now, I decided to start with developing my own brand VikaMayzel.Jewelry. Being a fresh graduate, I have accumulated many ideas in my head that I would love to bring to life. So, that was the main reason for this choice and decision to start like that. It is very challenging, because as a starter, besides creating jewelry itself, I also have to do everything involved, such as marketing, custom relationship management, promotion, social media and even photography. In addition to that I participate in different jewelry and design fairs with my new collection, such as AUTOR Contemporary Jewelry Fair, which will take place in Bucharest. Right after this one I am taking part in Prague Design Week 2016 during the first week of May in Prague.
As far as my next step, I always say do not take the second step before the first one. I still think I have a long way to go with developing my own brand and I am curious where it will lead me. Then I am going to see what could be my next step and in which direction.
SC!: A piece of jewelry you cannot stop wearing…
VM: Well, this would be just my wedding band, made by myself, of course!
SC!: The perfect piece of jewelry is or has to have….
VM: I think the perfect piece of jewelry besides being comfortable to wear in the first place, should also contain some esthetic component, something like a wearable life story.
SC!: We’ve seen you work with plastic, wood, etc…. What´s your favorite material to work with nowadays and why?
VM: At the moment, I feel that my biggest obsessions are oxidized silver, horsehair and fur. In addition to those, there are a lot of materials and techniques which fascinate me as well, for example glassblowing. Actually, in my final project, I had an amazing collaboration with a well-known Israeli artist Ronit Dagan, who created glass shapes for me based on my sketches. Hopefully, at some point in time, I will be able to master this glassblowing technique by myself.
SC!: A jewelry designer you truly admire….
VM: Hanna Hedman.
SC!: Websites or magazines you normally read…
VM: Institute Magazine, Designmilk, Preziosa, Vogue, Schön! Magazine, Current Obsession, Wallpaper* magazine.
SC!: Do you plan to sell online?
VM: I am already selling on ETSY, my shop name is VikaMayzel.Jewelry, check it out!
Images courtesy of Vika Mayzel
Translation and Layout by Michael Padilla
