Maya Kini's Jewelry Design

Maya Kini's jewelry joins organic matter with modern design and materials. Beginning in Mexico nine years ago, she has continued her exploration of the medium both independently and through formal schooling in Florence, Italy and Portland, Oregon. She now lives and works in San Francisco. In her organix collection, Maya fabricates framing devices through which the viewer glimpses an abstraction of a particular fruit or vegetable. The materials used in this process are resin, sterling silver, and pressed and dehydrated fruits and vegetables (to see samples of these dried materials, click the link above, "view available shapes and sizes"). Many of these specimens are gathered at local farmer's markets throughout the Bay Area. The structure of each fruit and vegetable becomes clearer as the water is expelled from it during a week long process of pressing and drying. The technique creates a unique organic composition for every piece. There are a myriad of factors that ensure that each piece of jewlery will be distinctive: some relating to how, when, and where the vegetable was grown, some to the drying process, and some to the eye of the artist and what she chooses to accent. Like a cell on a glass slide, Maya uses the frames and resin to magnify the organic matter and, in doing so, adds an element of preciousness to material often viewed simply as sustenance.

Get More details at http://www.mayakini.com