Headpiece designer Rasa Vil Jewelry on the sense of community beading fosters.
Jewelry designer Rasa Vilcinskaite uses one word to describe her artistic persona, “silent.” Her work is quite the opposite. Vilcinskaite creates extraordinary pieces of jewelry, headwear, and masks using intricately embroidered beads, which are so theatrical she deems them “wearable art.” Her work was recently featured in the Munich exhibit, Fashion For Bank Robbers, which celebrates contemporary masks and headpieces, bringing together a unique sphere of artists who blend sculpture with fashion.
Vilcinskaite studied visual arts at The Academy of Fine Arts in Lithuania, where she was introduced to beadwork by chance. “My path started completely unplanned. I dove steeply and deeply into working with beads and exploring the possibilities of my own style. I spent all my free time learning how to describe myself through jewelry. After a while, it was clear that it was the way I could express my inner world the most,” says Vilcinskaite. However, Vilcinskaite doesn’t want the work to reveal all of herself—just as masks don’t fully reveal their wearer. She enjoys the dichotomy beading allows, giving her creative freedom to communicate with the outside world while keeping “so many profound secrets,” she explains. “I can hide myself under my art.”
Her creative process begins one of two ways: with a completely thought-out idea or with no idea at all. In both of these situations, Vilcinskaite starts with color. “I’m on a constant search for the right colors and shapes of beads, constantly changing the structure and adding new elements. In short, everything changes in the work process. It’s really the process itself that creates the work, not me.”
Vilcinskaite is so grateful to have been introduced to jewelry making; she now shares her skills in workshops across the globe. Traveling through different countries, she teaches students how to create unique headwear. For Vilcinskaite, the workshops are about the basics of embroidery, but more importantly, they are about strangers coming together. “It’s amazing how workshops collect strangers who have so much in common. As soon as the work process begins, an invisible but very significant element of the workshop starts, the sharing of life. The sharing of experience and emotions. This is the most amazing element of the process for me.”
Vilcinskaite recently relocated to Tbilisi, Georgia, where she plans to start a women’s embroidery circle. For her, it’s not all about creating, but sharing her gift with students and the world, building “the happiness of life.”
Images courtesy of Rasa Vilcinskaite.
