Sev Gedra Makes

Tallinn was perfect, and I’m quite sad I’m not still there right now and forever after. “Forest animal” handpies, hot wine, moose curry, and amber stores. Beautiful beautiful amber stores.

Other than amber, the only other colors used in this piece appear around the edge of the crown in what I call “a palette of decay.” Drawing from hues from speckled mold, blossomed bruises, brass patina, a fleshy pink; colors that can be quite alienating, unseemly, or even alarming when found naturally, but decontextualized these colors are allowed to harmonize with each other.

The beads transition from fully saturated hues to colorful cores wrapped in amber, mirroring the narrative of the entire piece as a whole: decay over time creeps around the edges and is inevitable, but it’s creep is halted by preserving the memories that we want to keep.

From the neck down, this piece features Baltic amber, a fair portion of which were gifted by my grandmother. Imitating a bias cut dress, the weave hugs the form enveloping the body in fossilized gems.

Amber is highly prized for its wide range of colors, and appears across cultures in archeological sites and graves. Prized for both its symbolic beauty and its charged symbolic meaning, its materiality serves as a frozen moment in time.

All Eyes On You

Fully tambour beaded headdress featuring nigh 100 hand-painted cabochon eyeballs. Many of my thoughts these last few months have been occupied by the idea of perception: what you show people vs what they see. This piece is one of the many ways that idea has manifested.

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