Nature's Collection by Clara Saldarriaga

@Humberto Quevedo

Marcella Echavarria (ME): PLEASE TELL US ABOUT YOUR WORK?

Clara Saldarriaga (CS): My work talks about Colombia, the country where I was born and where I live and work.   My artisitc work is a response to a beautiful scenario where the sun shines all year round,  and the shades of green and flowers are infinite.

Each piece I make pays homage to Colombia’s biodiversity through very old ancestral techniques that involve metalwork, lost wax and other alchemical processes.  Nature enjoys a second life through the contact of natural elements with copper, gold and silver.  Each piece tells  stories about nature and becomes part of the history of the person wearing the jewelry.

@ME

ME: HOW DID YOU BEGIN WORKING WITH NATURE?

CS:In 1989, after years of exploring life size formats, I became interested in smaller formats that could interact in an intimate way with the users, becoming par tof their lives and acting as totems and amulets.  At that time I had a lot of questions about life, time, permanence and impermanence.  The research that led to the “Nature’s Collection”, started from a process of deep questioning, inquiry and soul searching reflection.

@CS

ME:HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR CREATIVE PROCESS

CS: My spiritual search led me to find the appropriate metals to achive the pieces that would highlight nature with its beauty along with its imperfections. I was interested in the secrets that are not easily perceived by the eye, the essence that is felt at a different level. Years of research led me to the pieces that are part of “ Nature’s Collection”.

@CS

ME: WHERE DO YOU FIND YOUR INSPIRATION?

CS: From life, from my questions, from my everyday life with its simplicity and complexity. Its sweet and sour.

@CS

@CS

ME: IS YOUR WORK INNOVATIVE?

CS: My work is innovative because it does what we all dream of doing many times which is freezing time and moments, escaping the passing of time, the ephimeral.

ME: WHAT AFFECTS YOUR WORK?

CS: Any change to the ecosystem affects my work.  I borrow from nature in a process which leaves traces of  a moment in time, a certain natural expresion, a gesture.

ME: WHAT MAKES YOUR WORK UNIQUE?

CS: Each piece is handmade, one by one, following nature’s rhythms.

CLARASOL  SALDARRIAGA

JOYAS DE AUTOR

clarasol@une.net.co

http://clarasoljoyas.blogspot.com/

http://twitter.com/CLARASOLJOYAS

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CARRERA 3 N. 11-55 AP. 103

CALLE DEL SOL

LA CANDELARIA

BOGOTÁ COLOMBIA

CEL. 310 426 06 15