O n O u r R a d a r
T a k in g Shape
Below:
Fluttering Series
earrings, 2011
oxidized sterling
silver, waterproof
handmade paper
3
'2
5
x 2 -2
5
x '
75
'n.
each
“ I D O N ’T S IT D O W N A N D S K E T C H
something out and say, ‘I’m
going to make this,”’ says jew-
eler Tia Kramer. “I think very
much through making.”
Her work bears beautiful
witness to that approach. In
Kramer’s hands, wire and hand-
made paper come to life, as if
the organic shapes and vibrant
fiber webbing grew from seed.
She patiently coaxes her cre-
ations into being, stretching
wet, delicate paper made from
chemical-free fibers around
recycled sterling wire forms.
Once dried, the paper, now
remarkably durable, is imbued
with an intuition of its own;
if stretched or dampened again,
it remembers and assumes its
original shape.
Kramer’s path toward full-
time jewelry making has been
similarly instinctive. Though
she loved art front a young age,
it was never her only interest.
As a student at Macalester Col-
lege in St. Paul, Minnesota, she
expected to major in anthropol-
ogy or religious studies.
An art class changed her
mind. “I realized, ‘Oh, wait,
this is actually a way that I pro-
cess; this makes perfect sense,”’
she recalls.
The unexpected genesis
of her jewelry came during
her senior year, when she was
tapped to create two 20-foot
hanging sculptures for the psy-
chology department in 2003.
Seeking materials that were
light, durable, and colorful,
Kramer chose wire and paper,
a medium she’d worked with
in fiber arts classes and at a job
at the Minnesota Center for
Book Arts.
“I started making these little
maquettes and would hang them
to see how they interacted with
light,” Kramer says. “When stu-
dents or other professors came
in, their automatic reaction was
‘I want those for my ears.’ ”
Kramer casually began mak-
ing earrings and other jewelry,
her “rudimentary, self-taught
forms,” as she describes them,
taking a back seat to sound,
installation, and performance
work during a post-baccalaure-
ate year at the School of the
Art Institute of Chicago in the
mid-20oos. Then came another
Left and center:
In Ascending Series,
Kramer’s latest work,
colors like “inkpot”
contrast with gentler
tones o f “cherry blos-
som” and “haze.”
The environmentally
conscious maker uses
primarily recycled ster-
ling silver and biode-
gradable, natural-pulp
paper with a nontoxic
waterproof coating.
Below:
Swoon Series
bracelet, 2011
oxidized sterling
silver, waterproof
handmade paper
13 x 2.25x1.75 in.
fork in the road. When the
prospect of six-figure loans put
her plans to attend graduate
school on hold, Kramer decided
instead to move to - wait for it -
Antarctica.
Several months later, she
was driving a 33-ton vehicle
known colloquially as Ivan the
Terra Bus over frozen ocean,
working for the United States
Antarctic Program, which con-
ducts scientific research. To
feed her urge to make, Kramer
revisited her jewelry materials,
which were light and portable.
The stark environment
turned out to be the perfect
place to refine her designs. The
all-white landscape served as an
ideal background to explore color,
and in the isolated community
014 american craft dec/jani2
Photos: Hank Drew
