Forged, wrought, beaten, and burned into a delectable, magnificent beauty, Suzannah Wainhouse Jewelry captures the shapes and textures of nature’s marvels in enduring brass, stone, and wire. One thing that you will always find in a Wainhouse is that handmade, sculpted quality. Trust your instinct on this one: Her jewelry is authentic handmade.
The first piece she ever made, a gold ring, is something organic, human, and alive. She sculpts from the frozen metal and her work produces something with both fluidity and permanence, solidity and movement.
“These are objects of power and emotion,” Suzannah says. “As I make jewelry the purpose becomes clearer and more permanent each day. Design concepts strengthen and solidify over time.”
Suzannah grew up surrounded by the natural beauty of the northeastern forests, rivers, lakes, and seashores. Meeting her reveals a worldly, sophisticated grace without the self-importance that so often stifles these virtues. She has a powerful wisdom: A force of righteousness that is both crushing and compassionate. When asked why she decided to start making jewelry Suzannah says, “I just felt it I guess.” She is so clearly attuned to her deepest desires, aligned on her spiritual path, and she has the courage and fortitude to follow her own compass with a calm, deliberate devotion.
From the hinterland of southern Vermont, the chaos and competition of NYC art schools, and humble origins as an apprentice to Robert Borter of Brattleboro, Vermont, Ms. Wainhouse has soared to the prestige of a recognized designer in the New York fashion industry featured in the New York Times Women’s Fashion section as a “Modern Mystic.”
Although this author may risk exaggeration, especially since Suzannah’s career as a fashion designer is still beginning, the simple truth of this aspiring artist’s amazing achievement is irresistible. Suzannah started making jewelry about three years ago. Then in 2010 she earned a contract with Barneys New York and since then has employed four interns to meet demand, an experience she describes as “amazing.”
“I try to capture the shapes and textures that I love, that I see in nature,” Suzannah explains, “like this shell I had molded and then cast in bronze. I took the cast bronze and worked with it, hammering, pulling, prying, rubbing, and polishing, until I got what I wanted. I was thinking about something you might find at the bottom of the ocean.”
As I handled Blade I thought of crunching sand between my toes as the waves spew trinkets and oddities onto the beach, the seagulls quickly inspecting for a morsel. “I love to imagine that my jewelry links the wearer to a dream, a feeling, or a fantasy they once had,” she says. Her pieces are original, spontaneous, and transformative, but not thematic. The shell-inspired piece is just one example of how Suzannah incorporates bare forms into her jewelry. “I am intrigued by the essence of form,” she explains.
At Suzannah’s studio, which she shares, every space on the wall has a hook and every hook holds some tool, some implement, some machine-part or raw material. She moves from bending, pinching, and pulling to grinding and washing, then burning and bathing to polishing and adjusting. She is so caring and attentive, with purpose and efficiency, yet at the same time her actions are instinctual as if she is driven by an undeniable urge to create, refine, and improve. She works quickly yet each piece is unique, crafted with the careful attention of a gardener pruning a rose bush or a chef preparing a delicate recipe.
Oh, and would you guess that Ms. Wainhouse is also an accomplished painter with over a decade of training and practice in that art and that her paintings sell in the range of tens of thousands of dollars? Well, that’s another story. Visit Suzannah Wainhouse Jewelry for the 2010 and 2011 catalogs.