Vendor: Melissa Pedersen Jewellery
Hey, speaking of growing things, this year we’ve got an incredible jewellery maker selling her handcrafted creations that may be metallic but look like they’re right out of the garden. How perfect for a PARKSALE…
See, what did I tell you? Her cast sterling silver, constructed argentium silver, and fresh water pearl “sprouts” are practically asking to be worn on a beautiful summer day in some sort of garden.
Gardens are exactly what inspires Melissa as she constructs her fantastic pieces. She has been making jewellery practically her whole life, but this May graduated from five years of fun and hard work at ACAD with a Bachelors of Fine Arts with my focus on Jewellery and Metals. Taking inspiration from the cycles of nature she witnessed in her mother’s garden, Melissa focuses on the burst of life that comes each spring when new seeds sprout into flower.
“The early sprout, budding leaf, and the seed pod,” she says, “are symbols I use deliberately in my practice. These elements of new life represent for me perserverance, potential and hope. I realize life has many winter seasons, but it is also full of cycles. When a spring season enters my life I choose to capture it, and treasure it, using it as a reminder for the future.”
As her Autumn Squash pendant above, and all her jewellery shows, Melissa is dedicated to capturing a celebration of life in precious metals and wearable art. She’s a perfect fit for the PARKSALE, showing her dedication not only to the early summer time the PARKSALE takes place in, but Calgary itself as a budding cultural center.
She says, “Calgary is a relatively young city, it has tons of potential, and that is exciting to me because I have the opportunity as an emerging artist to help shape it.” Working with, but diversifying from Calgary’s cowtown image, Melissa is bringing her own vision of growth to our celebration of our city’s young cultural life.
Melissa will have her one of a kind, and limited production, handmade jewellery created from sterling silver, and semi precious gemstones at our PARKSALE this year, and you can also check out some interesting posts and updates of her work progress on her pieces (cool idea!) on her blog, http://www.melissapedersenjewellery.blogspot.com/, while her website, http://www.melissapedersen.com/ is under construction.
Going green has never been so golden.
