First Published in
Natural materials and carefully honed techniques were combined to produce mellow textured and vibrantly coloured pieces to complement Maya Prass’s distinctive clothing.
Pinks and greens and burnished metallic colours made up her specially commissioned collection of rings, earrings, pendants and bangles.
“Maya gave me the freedom to do what I wanted,” Ida-Elsje explains. “She gave me an idea of the feel she had in mind, but the rest was up to me.
“I was certainly inspired by the expansiveness of antique African jewellery and had fun playing with colours and textures to complement her gallant designs.”
Ida-Elsje knows a wonderful bead merchant who comes to Cape Town once a year after travelling through remote African villages. He always visits her with a wealth of very old customary beads; it is only after scrubbing them carefully that their true colours and splendour come to light.
She has accumulated a vivid assortment of these treasures over the past few years and used some to finish the bold, layered pendants for Maya’s show. She also combined leather and metal.
“I have never worked with leather before this collection,” she says. “I found that the mutable, matt-rough texture of the leather was a superb addition to the smooth, shiny metal. I will definitely combine the two materials again for upcoming ranges.”
To the disappointment of many of her customers, none of the Maya Prass-inspired necklaces is for sale, as they now form part of her personal bead collection. Since the show, however, she’s has been commissioned to make loads more of the earrings and even Maya insisted on having at least five pairs from the collection.
“For me, big earrings are so much more effective if you want to make a statement without having to dress up. When I first started making larger earrings a few years ago it was only a select few who braved them in public, now I can’t keep up with the demand.”
Such jewellery adorned the new Nokia Face of Africa on the cover of Elle magazine and she’s busy with a large commission of earrings for the Jenni Button shops.
I mostly just get inspired by what looks pretty in my head…I notice patterns everywhere and turn them into beautiful jewellery. And every pattern and silhouette leads to another.
Natural materials and carefully honed techniques were combined to produce mellow textured and vibrantly coloured pieces to complement Maya Prass’s distinctive clothing.
Pinks and greens and burnished metallic colours made up her specially commissioned collection of rings, earrings, pendants and bangles.
“Maya gave me the freedom to do what I wanted,” Ida-Elsje explains. “She gave me an idea of the feel she had in mind, but the rest was up to me.
“I was certainly inspired by the expansiveness of antique African jewellery and had fun playing with colours and textures to complement her gallant designs.”
Ida-Elsje knows a wonderful bead merchant who comes to Cape Town once a year after travelling through remote African villages. He always visits her with a wealth of very old customary beads; it is only after scrubbing them carefully that their true colours and splendour come to light.
She has accumulated a vivid assortment of these treasures over the past few years and used some to finish the bold, layered pendants for Maya’s show. She also combined leather and metal.
“I have never worked with leather before this collection,” she says. “I found that the mutable, matt-rough texture of the leather was a superb addition to the smooth, shiny metal. I will definitely combine the two materials again for upcoming ranges.”
To the disappointment of many of her customers, none of the Maya Prass-inspired necklaces is for sale, as they now form part of her personal bead collection. Since the show, however, she’s has been commissioned to make loads more of the earrings and even Maya insisted on having at least five pairs from the collection.
“For me, big earrings are so much more effective if you want to make a statement without having to dress up. When I first started making larger earrings a few years ago it was only a select few who braved them in public, now I can’t keep up with the demand.”
Such jewellery adorned the new Nokia Face of Africa on the cover of Elle magazine and she’s busy with a large commission of earrings for the Jenni Button shops.
“I mostly just get inspired by what looks pretty in my head…I notice patterns everywhere and turn them into beautiful jewellery. And every pattern and silhouette leads to another.”
