Casey Perez met Paloma Sanchez, a Spanish jeweler, at a busy restaurant in downtown Beijing. Paloma dumped out a sack of emeralds on the table. “They are from Columbia. This one is worth $1 Million,” Paloma explained. Casey examined the stone.
“It was magnificently cut. It would fit on a quarter. Some of the other, raw stones were just as beautiful if not more so,” Casey recalls. “I would love to work with precious stones. I guess I’m drawn to textures and shapes that appear kind of vicious, but I always like to counter that with other elements in the piece.”
Returning from the apprenticeship in China, Casey was stopped in the Beijing Capital International Airport. She expected that her adornments would cause havoc with the metal detectors but she was surprised to be taken aside and interrogated.
She surrendered a prized necklace pendant from her Steel Collection and officials turned it over in their hands contemplating what it might be. “They might have thought it was a bullet or some type of weapon,” she says. While Casey appreciated the scrutiny she cringed at the thought that they might confiscate her Spike Necklace.
Casey is creating jewelry that requires study and interpretation. “That is more important than what I meant it to be,” she says. “I like the idea of digging up some old relic, a real artifact, turning it around in your hands and scrutinizing it, trying to figure out what it is supposed to be or what the materials are or how it was made.” She transfers meaning from ordinary objects to a new, innovative form. Mundane leftovers of industrial processes, discarded and forgotten objects take on a new life.
Her work often exhibits an unmistakable indication of danger. When asked whether she intends to produce this effect she says, “actually it just comes out that way.” So far she has worked mostly with bronze and steel. She incorporates manufacturing techniques that defy the traditional methods of jewelry making. “This was cut with a plasma cutter,” Casey explains, “and this one was treated with some industrial chemicals.” She produces something unexpected, unique, and original out of commonplace materials.
Casey graduated from New York University with a major in psychology. “In my senior year I took one jewelry-making class and just couldn’t stop making jewelry after that,” she says. She followed her passion. After an internship with Digby & Iona of Brooklyn and an apprenticeship with Paloma Sanchez, she now works fulltime for Pamela Love, a Manhattan based designer. Her jewelry sells in various stores in New York City, including Sucre in the West Village and Old Hollywood in Brooklyn. She also manages her own online store where she sells jewelry on the global market.
Ms. Perez takes custom orders. “Right now I am making some personalized keys,” she says. When asked what the keys are for she doesn’t answer right away. “I don’t know what they are for. I just make them,” she says.
Visit Artifacts by Casey Perez for contact and more information about this fashion pioneer.