New projects and upcoming pop-ups

Hello. With summer in full swing, for most crafters this is the time when you start to work on your fall/holiday shows. I have some fun events already on the books for October and November but lets stay in this summer paradise for now. Tomorrow, August 10th I will be participating in a first outdoor market at Cal. Anderson Park in the heart of Capitol Hill. The event is 11-5 and with over 100 vendors should be a hit. if you want to find the details about this of any other event, please look at my stories on instagram as there will always be an address and additional info.

In other news I am currently finishing up a flame working class that was part of my Pratt artist in residence award and will find ways to incorporate these new techniques into my jewelry. The longer I work with glass, the more things I come across that I want to learn. There are so many kinds of glass and so many ways to work with it, i’m thinking of starting a podcast or a you tube channel where I talk about glass, glass, glass. What do you think?

Boy, some things take a long time. I have been developing a new line of glass jewelry with screen printed and fused glass… for eeeever and I am almost ready to show you. My next in person event will be the Punk Rock Flea Market, more about that next month. Take good care and stay inspired.

Bright Light

My most recent creative opportunity was a month-long artist residency at Pratt Fine Arts Center in flameworking. This led to a new body of work that developed on its own as I showed up day to day to practice new techniques on the torch. It is impossible to explain the importance of this kind of creative exploration, to carve out time and space to make without expectation or need to produce. Pratt has been a pillar of my artistic development and time and time again allowed me opportunities to discover new materials and the ability to expand my skill set. This residency reminded me of the immeasurable value of community and many of the days it felt like coming home. It re-lit a fire in me that I did not know had gone out.

The vessels I was making bloomed and wilted and I started to see them evolve with the days and the weather. As they started to crowd the table, I realized they had a life all their own. They are impractical containers of precarious joy, uninhibited celebration, fragile beauty and sloppy decay. On Saturday, June 22, I will talk about the evolution of my work and what I see as the role of the artist in society and the current state of the world. I will also have my jewelry set up and available for purchase as well as a showcase of the goblets I made during the residency. This will be a great opportunity to get insight into the process and get an idea of what goes into sculpting glass at the torch.

I want to share with you my recent installation work.

"May Your Children Not Know War"

Inna Peck, 2022

I was nine years old when my family immigrated to the Pacific NorthWest and today we still have family in our home in Ukraine. This work is about about confronting the current cultural genocide of Ukrainian heritage and people. This installation was made to immerse the viewer into a dynamic emotional landscape, where there are select materials and objects that make up the exhibit.

One of my favorite mediums to work with is glass, for its ability to hold and pass light through. To me, it represents the universal contrast of being a solid and a liquid, resilient and fragile at the same time.

I work with detritus and discard scraps because they carry the history of their past life and I see that as a way to layer stories into my work. The domestic objects represent the violation of societal order and the invasion of private spaces.

One of the oldest Ukrainian symbols is the headdress. The vinok was always decorated with different colored ribbons which were imbued with symbolism and meaning. Girls use red ribbons to intertwine poppies into the wreaths, they are symbols of grief and magic. My personal reference to the ribbons is a special tree by the river in Kyiv where people come to tie ribbons to cast their wishes.

Namysto (necklace in Ukrainian) is an important part of traditional jewelry worn by ancient and modern women. The beads (most often red) had an aesthetic and symbolic meaning. It is believed that the red necklace beads drove away evil spirits.

There is a hidden meaning behind traditional patterns in Ukrainian embroidery. Ukrainians believe that embroidery is able to act like a talisman, protecting against everything bad. Many symbols represent happiness, fate, life and power within the ornamentation. The patterns from traditional needlepoint embroidery are represented on the broken panels of glass to reference cultural destruction and erasure.

My neon sculpture is now available for purchase.

My neon sculpture is now available for purchase.

Let me festively adorn you!

Welcome to my revamped website. As many of you know, this is the time of year we shift our focus to sharing gifts in our communities. As we forge new ways of supporting and investing in our communities, I want to encourage you to purchase gifts that create a more magical world- where both the jewelry wearer and jewelry maker’s lives are enriched. Now until this coming Monday, all items are 20% off with special code: HANDMADE. Stay safe and cozy!

Thank you for your support during these strange times.

I love body adornment and have been wearing and making jewelry for a very long time. I fell in love with glass long before I even imagined having access to specialty studios of being able to figure out how to work with it on my own. It has so many contridictory aspects. It is incredibly strong as well as vulnerable and fragile. No matter how large or dense a block of glass is, if you hit it at a point, the whole thing will stack and shatter. Glass can be stable as a solid and flow and move like liquid in high heat. I believe that we are in the midst of radical changes and I hope that current social climate will encourage people to reflect on life and what’s important. Life is what happens when you’re busy doing other things so lets at least make sure we are wearing awesome jewelry and appreciating one another.

Quick update on the state of things.

Hello. Since everything in the world seems to be going through a metamorphosis, I decided to revamp my website and focus on making most of my work available for purchase here, directly from me.

I am currently making masks, prototyping new jewelry designs and beginning to make new work in my own studio.

I love collaborating with new designers so let me know if you are dreaming up something we could create together.