Sorina Cotea (Romania)

SORINA COTEA
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OUSIAI

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Biography:

With a background of 5 years in fashion design, my fascination with jewellery making was sparked while I was putting together a ready-to-wear blazer collection for my brand at the time. While researching different styles to complete the looks, the image of contrasting silver brooches against the coarse fabric I was working with, made it all come together. I then decided to try and make them myself. Not before long I applied for a series of jewellery making workshops at the Assamblage School of Contemporary Jewelry. By the end of that same year I had established my atelier and organized it just enough to get things started. I found myself completely captivated by the raw beauty of craftsmanship. How it impulsively extracts and refines bits and pieces of what one sees and feels in relation to the natural world is deeply fulfilling.

It helps me process life and inspires me to build a different language through the objects I create. I see them as material footprints that act as reminders of the symbolic and the mythical in modern life.

Collection Concept:

The pieces submitted here share the universal sea as their main source of inspiration (though part of different series).

The ear cuff and single earring are part of the idra collection from October 2019. Curling up the ear, the idra earring is inspired by the thrusting movement of a sea serpent making its way to land. Heavy with the prey seized in its jaws, it twists and thrusts its body towards land to save itself from being swallowed by the salty waves.

As well as with the Arizona shells, it all interweaves down to the essential. This time around, the design has been carved in wax and cast in silver. The oxidized pair wear their pearls boldly on the outside of their shells. Polished by hand, the fine matte finish gives the dark tone a soft glow.

In the last few months, by trusting the basic working methods with a more spontaneous and unified approach, a very personal technique developed. In the quiet breathing space of a lit candle, the slow melting process of its wax becomes a canvas for molding and carving. The

"shell man" and the "one-legged bird" emerge as unique pieces of jewellery. Silver, bronze and natural found objects "make kin" to echo a sense of reverence for the natural world and the mystical hidden within.

Bronze, silver

Earcuff, sterling silver

Pendant, silver, bronze, shell

Earring, sterling silver