Get extended access to 1600+ episodes, binge watch your favorite shows, and stream anytime - online or in the PBS app.
Already a Rhode Island PBS member?
You may have an unactivated Rhode Island PBS Passport member benefit. Check to see.
Clip: Special | 4m 37s | Video has closed captioning.
Meet Julia Sullivan, a Providence jeweler whose elegant silver and gold creations celebrate the beauty of nature and the female form. Inspired by her connection to her mother’s creative practice as a clothing designer, Julia seeks to continue that tradition with her own daughter, and the community of women springing up around her work.
Aired: 04/24/23
- If you want to know what's going on (upbeat music) (soft music) - Jewelry is an exciting medium for me because it's a drawing that you can wear out into the world.
It's not something you just hang at home, but it's something you can actually bring with you wherever you go and you can share it and talk about it.
The feeling behind all of my work is an attempt to help the wearer feel confident.
Hi, I'm Julia Sullivan.
I am a jeweler in Providence.
So much of my life growing up was surrounded by my mother and my mother working and having an art practice that was really important to her and also being successful and I was always just part of it.
That was such a joyful, positive, strong way to grow up and I really hope that I can give my daughter something similar to it.
My favorite thing is to just have like a bunch of ladies at my booth all just trying things on.
(upbeat music) (hammer banging) When I'm bending wire to make the earrings I use either sterling silver or 14 carat gold fill wire.
I work with a template that I've made.
It's just a pattern that I essentially trace in three dimensions.
I consider drawing and wire bending to be the same practice.
It's manipulating a line in a way that can convey the feeling or the idea that I'm trying to embody.
When I'm designing new pieces a lot of it is just in my head, marinating ideas.
I'll just doodle for a while and play around with wire and see what feels good because often an idea I have doesn't translate at all.
I'll realize that it's totally not an earring, but maybe it's a necklace.
I've always found that most of my best work has come from trying to fix something.
So my first design were these monster earrings that I'm wearing here.
I have the Nazca earrings that are inspired by the Nazca lines in Peru.
I have some palm earrings continuing with this botanical theme, I have Picasso acrobats and then I have the full body form, the lady earrings.
I think it's important to have the female form be out in the world in a less stigmatized way.
It's an important thing to celebrate, especially especially now as a mother.
They are like little sculptures.
I mean, jewelry is just small art that you can wear.
(upbeat music) - [Narrator] Watch More Art Inc. A Rhode Island PBS original series now streaming at ripbs.org/artinc.
