Maria Kiialainen

So often we see just a little part of it all, so much is hidden and stays invisible. From microcosms until macrocosm, inside or outside, fast or slow, things that can’t be seen with bare eyes, grow an urge in me to magnify. Small things become big, invisible becomes visible, unreachable becomes reachable, will the insignificant becomes significant or frightening rather comforting?

Coexisting with the nature is a central theme for me. I want to raise questions about our role in nature, how substantial is the invisible rhizome of the nature and how we are connected to it?Creating jewellery is a way to portray stories, creatures of the nature become actors of my play. Through personifying I seek an accessible approach to relay to scientific themes as well as translating my emotions.

Like an alchemist, I explore properties and reactions of the materials I use. I compose my working recipes through experimentation. It gives me great pleasure to work with metal, to solve the puzzle of folding sheet metal or to use the power of the hammer to create volumes and shapes. But the objects I create only come to life after an enamelling process, this is where the magic happens, the glass melts over the metal and the object takes on its character and beauty flaw.