Tell me a little bit about yourself.
My name is Elisabetta Marrella and I am a Toronto
native where I currently live in my small, one bedroom apartment that
also acts as my studio. I am the sole designer for Bread & Circus, a
recent graduate of OCAD University where I studied Criticism and
Curatorial Practice and most recently I worked with Etsy Canada where I
worked in the social media and digital marketing department. I am a
Pisces through and through, a lover of old books, good conversations
over lots of good wine, The Wizard of Oz and dream journal-ing.
Tell us a bit about Bread and Circus.
Bread
& Circus got its name from a Roman philosophy "Panem et Circenses"
which described how governments appeased the masses by giving them
something to consume (bread) and something to entertain themselves with
(circuses). We all know that life today is a little more complicated
than that but I was really attracted to this basic structure of
amusement. I feel like the act of buying jewellery really fits into this
model; it's really about providing this simple pleasure through
adornment, whether that's through a huge statement piece or a tiny,
barely-there ring.
That
said, I also use this model of consuming and entertaining by giving
something to entertain yourself with with every piece of jewellery you
purchase. Sometimes it's a fact that describes how blood is chemically
similar to sea water, or the historical significance of a friendship
bracelet. Sometimes it's a movie suggestion or a book I think you should
read; the idea is that through this exchange you forge new
relationships between the things you wear and the things you know.
What brought you to start designing jewellery?
Designing jewellery is one of those things that I
can't quite pin point a start date to, the way I can't figure out when I
knew I wanted to be an artist or the first time I fell in love with
boys with blue eyes; it's just this innate attraction to it. I think it
has something to do with jewellery's capacity to transcend historical,
social and cultural boundaries. Everyone, everywhere, has some sort of
relationship with it in some capacity and that's what's exciting to me.
Why I decided to start making my own? Well, I think I can establish a
few reasons that go beyond the general frustration of mass-produced,
cheaply made jewellery. For one, I feel fulfilled when I'm working with
my hands and to be able to give the end product of that feeling away to
someone who is (hopefully) going to love it as much as me makes me more
than happy. In other words, it is way for me to be purposefully creative
and expressive. Secondly, the handmade market can be a little
unnecessarily expensive and therefore a little daunting for even the
most enthusiastic and righteous of consumers. I wanted to show people
that buying handmade doesn't have to break the bank to be beautiful.
Where do you find inspiration for your jewellery designs?
To say I don't have a specific person in mind when
I'm making my jewellery would be a lie from a branding and marketing
perspective, but I think it has a general appeal that goes beyond that
person. My inspiration really comes from the everyday. I have a few
pieces in my collection that are clearly not intended for everyday wear,
but for the most part I wanted to make jewellery that you forget you're
wearing; things that feel natural on your body. I had this one thin
chain, 14K gold bracelet with a small heart and a key that I wore for a
good six years before it eventually broke and fell off and I still think
about it from time to time. I want to continue to make work that evokes
that same sort of nostalgia.
What are your favourite materials to work with?
I have always been attracted to the warmth of gold,
but because I am not in an ethical or financial position to work with
it, most of my pieces are constructed from solid brass because it evokes
that same feeling - with a few sterling silver exceptions here and
there. I am also an artist by nature, and so I have a compulsion to
hoard materials until I find a use for them and collections are usually
built out of that. For example, I went to a garage sale about a year and
a half ago where this eccentric lady (who I fell in love with) had
piles of the most wicked vintage wallpaper. I took home two rolls of
this pastel metallic stuff and kept it sitting in a closet until I
figured out a process of burnishing it onto surfaces. I threw some resin
on it and before I knew it I had this playful collection of vintage
wallpaper pieces that composed most of my (last) summer collection.
This season, I am working with a large piece of bronze from my father
(amongst other materials). Working in this way makes me feel like I am
slowly giving away abstracted pieces of a story with every item I
construct. It feels good to me to make things in this way - maybe this
whole entertaining/consuming thing isn't too farfetched after all.
Which jewellery designers do you admire?
Working
for Etsy I was so inspired and humbled by the talent both here in
Canada and around the world. Amongst the handmade handbag designers and
printmakers I'll leave unnamed, I am the most inspired by the several
Canadian jewellery designers that have turned their passion into a
business. Montreal designers who reinvent materials and shapes like
Nanoukiko and
Noemiah, to the stunning androgyny in the work of Toronto talent like
Dolorous and
REBELbyFate to Vancouver talent like
RISH Jewellery and
Wasted Effort 's use of metal and stone. I could keep going but for the sake of listing I'll stop there.
What is the best and worst part about designing your own jewellery?
I
can't tell if it is the critic or designer in me that brings this out
or whether it's a deadly mix of both, but designing my own jewellery has
made me hyper critical of everything out there while being attracted to
it all. I'm constantly picking up pieces in every retail space I go,
almost compulsively, and analyzing how things are constructed and put
together. It is what keeps me both inspired as it does confused. In
other words, sometimes I can be really attracted to something and
because I have the knowledge and the capacity to make it myself, it's a
constant negotiation over whether or not I should. I try and hold true
to my brands values and keep things consistent, and support jewellery I
love by buying it, along the way. I'd have to say though, that the most
exciting part about making my own jewellery is the new people I get to
meet through the shows and online platforms (Etsy, SM channels, etc) -
I've learned so much through these interactions, both about the work and
about myself and as long as I can keep riding that wave and staying
inspired, I will.
What inspires you the most (someone, something, somewhere)?
As I mentioned above I am really inspired by the everyday. Somewhere
along the way we started only concerning ourselves with only the
profound moments in order to validate our lives, you know? Whether it is
the exotic place you got to visit for the sake of taking a photo there
or the food you photograph at the super expensive restaurant you got to
eat at that one time, this feeling is apparent everywhere I go and I'm
not very interested in it. I don't travel much, mostly for financial
reasons but also to boycott the "look where I've been" attitude, and I
feel validation through making my own food and feeding my very close
circle of friends in the home I've created for myself. I'm inspired by
the conversations we have over those meals and the roots I've created in
places I've lived all my life. I'm inspired by the things that
transcend eras, like great stories and intelligent design and the things
that we see all the time: budding flowers every May, the smell of warm
coffee every morning and tears at funerals. I feel comfort in
consistency and I want my jewelry to fit in somewhere in that space, all
the time.
Thank you so much for sharing your beautiful work with us Elisabetta! x
