News

Gift To Empower

December 1^st through 24^th, join us to…

Shop handmade & beautiful.

Buy something you love.

Save.

And Do Good.  

YVIE is partnering up with Humanity Unified this holiday season to celebrate the spirit of female empowerment, human togetherness, and making a difference.

We will be hosting a creative challenge: to bring you 24 days of unique one-of-a-kind handcrafted designs, one new design revealed each day in the shop [click here to view], available for purchase at a special price of $100---and 50% of all items sold will be used to help empower 100 Rwandan women living in extreme poverty through a farming cooperative project that will provide education, tools, seed and storage, food security and business skills training.

Humanity Unified is a for-profit enterprise that works with Humanity Unified International, a non-profit, to raise funds for Aspire and other local organizations running impactful programs that empower people with the skill and knowledge they need to rise out of poverty.  

Rwanda is one of the most densely populated countries in Africa, where gender equality issues run deep, land rights have only recently been granted to women, and the 1994 genocide (which targeted men) created a large group of widows and orphaned girls that were displaced or kicked off of their small family farms by distant male relatives who were legally allowed to take it over.

It is my belief that the most loving and powerful way to help others is by giving them a hand up, not a hand out. HU International is doing just that. The goal is to strengthen communities through equipping women with literacy and vocational training in sustainable agriculture methods, which in turn provides them and their families with the independence to gain food security and economic opportunities for themselves.

“Overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity; it is an act of justice.”----Nelson Mandela

As I live a life blessed with peace, love, and security…I am none-the-less aware that there are many who are struggling to live amidst circumstances with few to no options towards these basic and foundational needs in life. Thus, I hope you will find joy and entertainment in this design challenge—as we count down to Christmas Day together—and if something catches your eye and steals your heart along the way, buy it for yourself or for a loved one…and take part in walking the first steps towards the promise for real change in the world.

Check out the Daily Design (here) - starting Tuesday December 1st! 


To learn more about Humanity Unified and their story.

Art Life

I am so excited to announce that YVIE will be collaborating with urban artist Amy Smith, on a new piece for The Gabba Gallery--opening January 2016!  

Art, An Unfolding Relationship

“Great art smacks you right in the eye, it affects you, it moves you, it changes you.” 

Says Smithsonian Magazine's editor and chief, Michael Caruso. Well, the first time I met one of Janet Echelman's installations it did just that.  It was 2014, and I was on my way back to LA from a trip to Costa Rica, with a short layover.  As I emerged from the walkway at the airport---I was stopped in my tracks by the large organic fishnet chandeliers that draped down in voluptuous tiers from the ceiling in their graceful undulating colors, and could not stop snapping photos of them with my phone in order to try and capture the moment: of how they made me feel, their curves, the texture and weave of the netting, the colors...determined to hold onto a piece of them for myself.  There was something at once tactile and traditional about them, and yet magical and playful, that made me fall in love with Janet's work instantly.  

I love those moments when I see a piece of art and it opens me up from inside out with a sense of surreal wonder and invites me to connect with it.  This is how Janet's hand knotted and magically lit sky net installation "Skies Painted with Unnumbered Sparks" makes me feel, even whilst only being able to experience its interactive sparks of light and color through video.  A 750 foot sculpture created to suspend in the air and be attached between pre-existing structures, made out of more than 100 miles of traditionally hand knotted fibers, that is also outfitted with software that enabled viewers to use their smartphones to interact with the visual lighting displayed on the sculpture.  Each participant is able to use their mobile device to select a color and make a gesture with their finger, an action that was then translated through software and projected onto the sculpture like a Fantasia light show.  The results are absolutely breathtaking.  

"I want my art to unfold like a relationship that's always changing."---Janet Echelman

 

However, what inspires me the most about Janet’s work is its ever changing relationship with its environment, its audience, down to its interdisciplinary origins.  Each sculpture begins with a collaborative design process between the arts & sciences: not only artist, but structural engineers, software developers, and lighting specialists whilst it moves through a journey of creation, realization, and technical troubleshooting before it is painstakingly crafted by hand.  In the case of her newest piece, rising over the Boston Greenway: building contractors, political officials, the sponsoring committee, owners of nearby properties, and more are involved in order to implement the sculpture into its designated space. Before the sculpture is installed, it first arrives in an impossibly small crate, and is meticulously unfolded and lifted through the use of cranes.  The weblike anchoring points are then manually hand cranked and attached to structural load bearing points amidst the encircling of buildings that have agreed to participate in the display of sustaining the 1 ton net + additional 50,000 pounds of force (per cable attachment) that is produced with every gust of wind that funnels through the buildings and rakes through its fibers.  

This current installation had been untitled until it was installed.  Janet wanted to meet the piece first before she named it.  Probably because the final anchoring points of the sculpture plays a hand in the unfolding and final form of the sculpture itself.  Surreal in its gossamer aerial suspension amidst the city’s skyscrapers, the sculpture is a study in contrast--both between its own strength and resilience, as well as the opposing brute strength and rigidity of the steel and glass surrounding it.  The sculpture’s lighting is fine tuned to shift with the wind at night. 

“If you come and lie down in the grass underneath and look up and notice the changing patterns of wind, I feel that you have experienced the work,” she said, “creating your own meaning, finding your own observations about nature and the city.” ----Janet Echelman

That is Janet’s wish, the impact that she hopes to imprint upon those who experiences her art.  A live and ever changing relationship between the viewer and the art that unfolds in layers--finding our own meaning as influenced by our personal history, observations, and thoughts.  I hope to pursue a similar vision and meaning behind my own work.

*Photos are credited to Studio Echelman (top of post) and Reed Young (above)

Creative Block

It has been two weeks since the launch of this website and I have hit a creative block.  After having spent the last 4 months painstakingly building a brand that I felt I could be proud of, one that authentically expresses the most sincere and passionate values of who I am and who I want to be.  I somehow find myself hesitating about how much of my personal self and thoughts I should be sharing on my blog, whether sharing my personal setbacks and uncertainties would deter people from believing in my brand and my art, and most of all-why would anyone care to read my thoughts on these matters when we all have problems of our own to sort out.

These are the same thoughts I woke up to this morning, filled with guilt of not having stuck to my weekly blog post schedule, due to my uncertainty of what words of mine could hold enough value or inspiration to be worth putting out into the world.  I have never had a problem with action, once my heart was pointed in the right direction, but words can unwittingly walk a precarious line between pretense and over self-importance.

However, as I read about the terrible events that are happening in Paris on the few news platforms I do follow on my phone, and scan through the huge outpouring of love and heartfelt support that has been sent, shared, and expressed to family members, friends, and loved ones on every social media platform within our reach...I was reminded of one thing.  That although moments of creativity and inspiration can be the highlights of our emotional memory, their darker counterparts of hardship, uncertainty, vulnerability, and struggle are what brings people together.  Thus, the feelings we experience that we are not proud to say out loud and share are also the most effective in unlocking barriers and creating connections, because they are a personal piece of ourselves that we risk when we unveil it to public judgement.  This is part of what I want YVIE to stand for and what I believe should be a part of living life sincerely, compassionately, and openly.  

So, I am humbly going to brave what I believe in, and make this statement as much to myself as to the ether.  That being bold of mind is being bold of heart, where the first step is to be willing to share the inspiring, the personal, as well as the darkness-in the hope of connecting and creating ripples of change.

My thoughts and love to Paris,

Launch Day Giveaway WINNER is:

Hi All,

I am very excited to announce that Mel Carlisle is the winner for our Launch Day Giveaway!!  I can't tell you how happy I am at the thought of being back in the studio designing (tomorrow!) --- and my first project will be a pair of custom made earrings...just for her!  <3

I want to say a sincere and heartfelt thank you to all of you for sharing today with me, and for making it such a lovely and personal celebration through the outpouring of love + support you have all shown me.

Can't wait to explore what there is to come!

Curiously yours,

Yvonne

It's A Launch!

Welcome to the brand new home of YVIE!

It has been a steep learning curve of 4 months that went into the exploration, design, visualization and finally...official launch of my very first brand.  I am sO excited to share it with you-and the WORLD!

This new collection, using a hand sculpted wire wrapping technique, took seed as a tiny itch of inspiration in November of 2015.  After stepping away from design for almost two years, I decided to give myself permission to play in the studio for a month and spent hours crafting, cutting, sewing and forming jewelry from every and all the materials my artistic pack rat nature had squirreled away in drawers--for years!  What emerged from the adventure was a renewal of my love for working with wire.  A material that is strong, yet malleable and delicate, allowing me to ornament and build my designs with the structural form due to an architect.  YVIE was born.

My new method of expression courted the romantic in me and sparked the idealist.  Thus, YVIE is inspired by my deep love for travel and new experiences, as well as a daily commitment to live life authentically and with bold intention.  To celebrate the originality and tradition of handmade craft, every design in the collection will be one-of-a-kind or limited edition only.  Each piece is thoughtfully crafted to be wearable art-and will be delivered with its own unique edition designation.

YVIE seeks to learn, grow, inspire and influence by these values--and to shower the world with them like confetti!  Our planet may be big but, an open heart, bold thinking and the courage to act will create change.