How a 1 star review became a beautiful collaboration
Serendipity isn’t a word I use often but the manifestation of The Valentina Collection, a collaboration between myself and Vanyanis, sure felt like it.
It all began back in 2019 when I was surprised by a message I received one day enquiring why I had left a 1 star Facebook review (understandable as a bad review for a small business can be devastating). Now I’m usually the kind of person who only leaves very positive reviews for businesses I’ve had a great experience with and want to support. If I receive poor service I’d rather just forget about it and move on so this unexpected message left me scratching my head and assuming they had the wrong person. But sure enough, when I looked up the business in question (which I had never heard of) they had a 1 star review from me with no explanation! As I wasn’t aware of my account being hacked or someone playing a sick jest, the only logical conclusion was that having my two lovely cats constantly walking across (and sometimes sleeping on) my keyboard was more than just disruptive to my work.
After we worked out an explanation and I of course changed the 1 star to a 5 star review, Lowana from Vanyanis and I got chatting and realised that not only did we live in the same city but there was a strong mutual appreciation for each other’s work. The moment Lowana suggested a collaboration is when I felt the stars align and jumped at the opportunity!
Video courtesy of Vanyanis, edited by @triskellepictures
The design
Lowana’s main idea was to create a collection based around the opulent Baroque style of her corset themed logo (as you could imagine this was right up my alley). We both wanted to design something special, something that makes the wearer feel glamorous and formidable. As Lowana says “Investing in special jewellery that you love, is an investment in yourself. What we wear and how we present outselves has incredible power to change the way you feel about yourself. Choosing something that you know will fit no matter how you change is powerful because you know you can always count on it to make you feel wonderful.”
Lowana also suggested using Swarovski crystals for extra sparkle and I was delighted when she tracked down some black crystals resembling chandelier pendalogues. So I got sketching and in a surprisingly short amount of time we had a complete set of earrings, pendant, ring and statement necklace ready to test.
Building a collection
Utilising mainly saw piercing and hand engraving for a delicate appearance, I created some samples we could use to experiment with chain lengths, sizes, crystal colour etc. We tried especially to consider all of the things we would appreciate in a decadent set of jewels. For example for Lowana proportions were key: “It’s always been a pet peeve of mine when sets like this all feature pendants in the same size – I’ve always felt from a design perspective the necklace pendant should be bigger so that’s a design choice we made for this set.”
As for me, apart from the usual aesthetic and technical considerations, I was focused on making sure each piece looked spectacular from every angle (you’ll notice this in small details like the tiny charm Lowana suggested we put on the end of the extender chain).
Once the necessary tweaks were made we settled on the idea of having the full range available in Brass, Silver or Gold in order to have a varied choice of price points and colours.
Video courtesy of Vanyanis, edited by @triskellepictures
Due to the pandemic we had to postpone the Valentina release but you can finally view the collection in full or make a purchase by heading to the Vanyanis online store. The collection is limited not only because I make each piece by hand to order, but also because the Swarovski crystals we’re using have been discontinued for small businesses. Maybe we’ll cook up something new when they’re sold out, in the meantime enjoy what two mischievous cats, a laptop and a lot of luck can create. It sure feels a lot like destiny.
-Clare
