Featured Artisan: Yasmin Lux ~ Anna Kay Creations

Hello everyone,

This post should have been scheduled for last Friday but due to scheduling conflicts, I could not post it sooner. My apologies for the delay. Please welcome this weeks featured Artisan Yasmin Lux.

First off, tell us a little about yourself!
My name is Yasmin Lux, i now live in the north of Israel in a small village by a forest. for the last 6 years I've been traveling the world, spent time in Europe , Morocco, California and India. During my first stay in India in 2005 I encountered jewelry made with macrame and gem stones and immediately fell in love.

How did you start creating your jewelry, and how long have you been doing it?
I have been making jewelry since I was a small girl, but the discovery of macrame changed my whole style and I knew I will be doing this forever, or at least for as long as my eyes would hold up. I bought a necklace from an artisan that day and he agreed to teach me the basics; from that day on I traveled everywhere with my supplies, learned a little bit here, a little bit there from fellow travelers , adding more and more tools to my "box" and the inspiration kept on coming.

Where do you get your inspiration from?
I can't really say where my inspiration comes from, it just does, like an endless waterfall from the sky to my imagination!!! I am so blessed! of course the materials themselves bring inspiration as well, the chords, the colors, the textures. I get a lot of inspiration from the gem stones themselves, each one asking me to present it to the world in its full glory. The time I spent in India was endlessly inspiring as well, the women there are walking jewels, their spirit equally beautiful.

My style is deeply inspired by old tribal jewelry as well, I was especially moved by an exhibition in San Francisco where the contents of an Afghani tomb where displayed http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tillya_Tepe *. the tomb contained the remains of a prince and two high priestesses who were all adorned in gold- from head to toe. Standing in that room, all surrounded by the glow of gold made me realize we should all be adorned like this. Our bodies being creations of the divine, deserve to be decorated with the most regal ….. I think I might have been a jeweler for a queen at some previous life time, now I make adornments for the modern queens - the beautiful and inspiring women that are all around me. Macrame has been my refuge ever since I found it , I am so great full to creation for bringing it into my life through it I have learned so much about life , it has been my meditation- with an added bonus- I give birth to something beautiful at the end of it!

Only in the last 2 years I have been selling my jewels in markets and festivals, this had added a whole new dimension to my experience - sharing my moments of inspiration and magic with my sisters is a blessing I have never imagined !

Outside of crafting, what else do you enjoy doing?

When I am not creating I love to be in nature , preferably near water ( a rare thing here in Israel) I see nature as the greatest artist and my role model. I love beauty , wherever and however it appears in each moment in every thing, and see my creation as an attempt to amplify it in the world. thank you so much for this opportunity to share it with more people.