Artist Pauletta Brooks creates stunning pieces of wearable art using minerals, metals and resin mesh. Find more of her unique designs on her website.
Born of a mineral-collecting father and an artist/painter mother, it’s no surprise that I developed into a jewelry artist.
I work with semiprecious stones and raw minerals, applying color, form and texture to my work.
After graduating Hampshire College and The Fashion Institute of Technology, I worked in the fashion industry as an illustrator, stylist, and art director. When an opportunity arose where I was asked to accessorize a fashion show of plain black swimsuits, I took it upon myself to create an assortment of colorful jewelry to use on the runway, thus venturing into a new career of jewelry design!
Never shy to use non-traditional materials, I began to experiment with an array of products, mixing anomalous elements and blending them to form interesting textures.
I worked with various jewelry techniques but still hadn’t found anything I was comfortable with. So, it was sheer serendipity that led me to the doctor’s office one day with a broken finger where I discovered a new and novel material—resin mesh.
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With it, I could sculpt and mold my collection of minerals into jewelry pieces. This material, available in various weights, strengths and resiliencies, is one of several thermoplastic materials used in the medical industry for casts and splints, and also used in the theater industry for props and masks.
It has a thermal property that allows it to become soft and malleable when heated, then solid and flexible once cooled. It allows me to form a foundation and structure for the stones and allows me to re-purpose a man-made material in an environmentally sound way.
I try to create pieces that are eye-catching and unique, as if they come from a mysterious world of beauty and fantasy; almost as if they had been dredged up from a mermaid’s lair in the sea.
My work has been featured in fashion editorials in Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, The New York Times as well as a variety of craft and jewelry journals such as Ornament Magazine, Hand/Eye and the Contemporary Jewelry Handbook.
I have also had my work shown in a number of galleries in the United States and around the world including The Folk Art Museum of New York City, the galleries at The Fashion Institute of Technology, Andrew Edlin Gallery in New York City, Eleni Marneri Galerie in Athens, Greece, Artistar in Milan, Italy and ICKS Contemporary Jewelry in Bruxelles, Belgium.
Artist Pauletta Brooks invites you to follow her on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest.
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