I love experimental and unconventional jewelry! In this series I'm featuring jewelry artists who work with unconventional materials and techniques, and who see a ring or a pendant as a canvas to express their art and creativity.
I love
beach pottery... you find it walking on a beautiful beach, and every piece has its own story. I love the way the sea or ocean models a piece making it smooth and soft in shape, and I love the fact that beach pottery is the expression of the culture of a specific country or sea shore. Beach pottery found on the shores of the Mediterranean is so different in design and textures from the one found on the shores of Scotland, or of Maine... and again, beach pottery gathered on the shores of a Greek island is so different in design from Italian beach pottery, or Spanish beach pottery.
As soon as I came across Gina's work on Etsy, I immediately fell in love with the way she makes amazing jewelry out of interesting beach pottery. Gina's greatest inspiration comes from my beloved island of
Rhodes, Greece, where she gathers her treasures that she then uses for her unique jewelry. To my eyes, each of her pieces writes a declaration of love to the Aegean and to Rhodes in particular. And it indeed is! She says:
"Sea glass, beach pottery, beach ceramics are all part of this wonderful gift of nature that started out as the big no-no of littering but the Gods, Goddesses and tears of the Mermaids have forgiven us and given us back something beautiful for our abuse to the sea. Aren’t we lucky! I know I am. Waking up at the crack of dawn with heart palpitations, looking to see if it light enough out yet, and not caring what you look like to get to that “special beach” filled with all the treasures you know are waiting for you on the Greek beaches, in particular Rhodes!". As Gina tells us,
"after many years of singing professionally on cruise ships in Europe, and getting tired of late night stage life, I decided to take a turn and find another way to share my creative energy. I have always loved anything about glass, mosaics, jewelry, stained glass, sea glass, etc.". In 2006 she started with mosaic making, from there she went to sea glass jewelry and beach pottery jewelry. She collects all her glass and beach pottery in Greece where she lived for over 20 years and visits yearly now.
Apart from her wonderful beach pottery jewelry featured here, Gina also creates beautiful sea glass jewelry and wonderful mosaic artwork, which you can all find in her Etsy shop
Ginalimosaics. And you can get to know more about her work and inspiration in her lovely
blog.
