Who is …
Maria Helena Spector creates and makes one-off or very limited edition pieces of jewellery. She is Peruvian by birth and upbringing but educated in European thought and culture. Her art stems from these two influences.
Trained as an artist, she brings a painter’s and sculptor’s perspective on colour and shape to her work. Her designs use hand finished gemstones selected from sources worldwide, including the mines of Peru. Specially cut, faceted and hand finished by herself, they include geometrical shapes to enhance the qualities of the stones.
What is the inspiration behind your work?
Maria derives much of her inspiration from her Peruvian culture, particularly Pre-Colombian South American architecture and jewellery as well as from basic geometric forms that she will mirror in the gemstones, and alter to achieve a particular effect.
My favourite material is…
Maria works purely with semi-precious gemstones, combining them with sterling silver. The stones allow her to shape them to enhance their properties and follow her imagination, while the malleability and adaptive ability of sterling silver allows her to produce work in conjunction with the stones. She often creates a “rough-hewn” matt effect with her gemstones, mixing them with polished ones.
Why I am the one to watch…
Not many people combine lapidary and silversmithing techniques and Maria has been exploring this for several years now. An important part of her work is sourcing and selecting gemstones from stone finishers in Peru and hand-finishing them herself. She is also applying silversmithing techniques to the gemstones, melting, forging and mirroring the stone shapes in silver.
Details about the collections you will be exhibiting at Brilliance…
A selection of earrings, bracelets and necklaces, incorporating hand finished gemstones with hand made sterling silver beads
What does the future hold?
Maria would like to expand the commissioned work she does with museums and continue designing around the shapes of gemstones and matching silver pieces. She also sees herself exploring new ways of cutting her selected gemstones.
Maria Helena Spector
Brilliance 2009
14B Hatley Road Finsbury Park London N4 3NN
T: 0207 263 3634
Contact: Maria Helena Spector
maria@mhspector.co.uk
As well as the Brilliance exhibition, you can find Maria's work at these stockists:
Tate Modern, Tate Britian, Gill Wing Jewellery London, Cecilia Colman Gallery London, Jewel Thief Gallery Brighton, Castle Arts Canterbury