all photos by me
“I just love the stories of ancient Rome. People were so bloodthirsty back then.” Caroline Ventura of New York jewellery label BRVTVS is grinning in her West 24th street studio. Over her right shoulder hang several serious and technical-looking pliers and over her left, a splotchy, hand-painted water-colour artwork tacked up onto the wall with sticky-tape. We couldn’t be further from ancient Rome, or at least the ubiquitous one immortalised in Elizabeth Taylor films, grainy holiday snaps and dusty history books. And yet, there’s something about those hammered gold plates, suspended so gracefully from dainty gold chains. Something historic. Legendary. Mythical.
“I love how Rome mixes the ancient with the modern,” Ventura says. “The way that I make each piece is a mix of the ancient process of jewellery making and modern design – all of the jewellery is made in a classic way, hand-hammered with artisanal levels of craftsmanship, but the designs and the shapes are modern.”
This is just one of the dichotomies that characterise Ventura’s one-and-a-half year old line, BRVTVS. What began with “fancy friendship bracelets” featuring hand-dyed silk threads and crafted beads has evolved into a small, but perfectly formed, line of pure gold necklaces, earrings and rings with a charmingly feminine yet resolutely wearable aesthetic. These thin bracelets and spun-gold rings may be simple, but they hold their own against even the most severe of garments. “I have a very tomboy personal style,” Ventura says, “and I love menswear for clothing. But for jewellery I like things that are pretty and super feminine. I like that contrast between boy and girl.”
Ventura is, as the best designers often are, her label’s best advertisement and biggest fan. Her casual everyday style of R.M Williams boots and oversized charcoal sweaters is offset perfectly by the stunning array of jewellery that she sports. In her right lobe are a few tiny emerald studs, in her left a plain gold sphere. A necklace, two bracelets and whole fingers full of stacked rings complete the look. Every design from BRVTVS (so called because she “thought it would be funny to name it after someone who was notoriously a bad friend”) is something that she would personally wear and test-drives herself, recalling the label’s early origins as her hobby and past time.
“I couldn’t find things that I wanted to wear in the jewellery world,” Ventura says, shrugging. “Everything seemed to be statement pieces, super big and not my style at all. I wanted something really dainty that I could wear everyday. So I decided to make them myself!” A class in metal work and several instructive youtube videos later, Ventura created her label. “A lot of it is trial and error,” she admits. “A lot of the time I just sit here and hammer away at making shapes. It’s such a learning process and I don’t think I’ll ever not have something to learn.”
Ventura’s design process is refreshingly organic. Whether physically molding shapes from metal or creating rough sketches on one of the many notepads that litter her studio, Ventura designs in the same unforced way that she approaches her business. The original collection revolved around the minimalist beauty of geometric shapes like spheres and cones. Now she is toying with the idea of natural materials such as wood and leather, especially for men’s jewellery. Ventura does have some experience designing for men – the matching wedding bands that both her and her husband wear are one of her own creations. But that doesn’t mean that she finds it easy to translate the particularly unique aesthetic of BRVTVS to menswear. “It’s tricky designing for men,” Ventura muses. “I think my designs are so dainty that it comes across too feminine.” She’s hopeful that a series of hand-dyed leather pieces with beads will appeal to the male customers that constantly request for BRVTVS to cater to their end of the market.
One thing that will remain steadfast as the label grows is Ventura’s dedication to artisanal techniques. “In anything that I do I always want it to feel like there was some level of craftsmanship to it, that it wasn’t just a piece that was turned out or that everyone has the same copy,” Ventura says. At the moment every item is made to order by Ventura herself, with the result that no two pieces are identical. In the future she would like to pass production over to an assistant so that she can focus on design and other creative ventures, but for now she’s happy to maintain control over her burgeoning label. “I would love to reach a broader audience and it’s limiting when you are doing it all yourself,” Ventura says, “but it’s so important to me to maintain that artistry aspect.” No matter how big the company grows the jewellery will always be handmade. “I don’t want to move into a factory setting. Maybe in the future they won’t all be handmade by me, but they will be handmade by someone.”
The future is truly bright for this old-worldly jewellery label. Ventura has dreams of a multi-faceted lifestyle empire encompassing everything that she finds lovely, from artsy greeting cards to hand-mixed oils and scents. A store-front would be ideal, somewhere nice and big so that Ventura can display her pieces to a browsing public in the ceramic jewellery dishes that she makes herself, resting on top of the rustic furniture that she designs in tandem with her husband. “I think I would like to offer a lot of things to people that could reach different facets of their lives and not just pretty jewellery,” Ventura says. “In the end it’s all just stuff that I want and stuff that I do anyway and I would just love to offer it to other people.”
You get the feeling that it all comes naturally to Ventura, one of those innately creative people who sees beauty in a grain of sand. Everything is effortless, without a single ounce of pretension. “Things will happen the way that they happen. I don’t want anything to feel forced because people won’t like – I won’t like it,” Ventura says. “Ultimately it’s all about me!” she adds, laughing. She’s certainly no gaudy, attention-grabbing Cleopatra, emerging triumphantly from a rug at Caesar’s feet, but this idea of fate and pre-destination? That sounds distinctly Roman to me.
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Another studio visit! It was such a pleasure to meet the face behind one of my favourite labels, and to see that she is incredibly creative and just as passionate as her designs suggest. I'm lucky enough to own a couple of BRVTVS numbers and they are my favourite pieces of jewellery - beautiful gold and historic designs. If you have any questions or would like to place a (hand made) order, please check out their online shop or contact info@brvtvs.com. And if you want to read my first studio visit in New York, with jewellery designer Satomi Kawakita, click here.
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