Vera's fascination with objects and the fluid boundary between history, digital folklore, and personal memories has been a central theme in their art. Drawing inspiration from a diverse array of sources—everyday life, childhood memories, toys, and storytelling—Vera Kamea's work reflects a deep passion for the precious and the collectible. We had the opportunity to sit down with Vera to discuss their creative journey so far.
Hey Vera, tell me about yourself and your work.
I’m from Liechtenstein and I studied graphic design in London, and throughout my degree, I discovered my love for tattooing. After graduating and two years of working in the tattoo scene in London, I decided to move to Paris. Through modelling, I was already involved in the fashion industry but when I moved to Paris I got more interested in fashion and designing. Somehow, I tested out what one of my tattoo designs would look like as a silver jewellery pendant. I loved this transition from drawing over 3D modelling to a solid piece to wear and that’s how I started my jewellery design work about a year and a half ago.
Your work is influenced by childhood memories, toys and stories. Why is your work based around these themes?
I love how collectable toys are (a bit like a precious jewellery collection when you are older) and how they make you think of different characters and archetypes to the everyday, as well as the emotional value they hold. Childhood memories and stories are a great place to start designing for me because they make me think outside the norm of my everyday surroundings which creates new and personal ideas. I can create my archetypes from this and design pieces for each of them.
Who or what particular experiences have inspired your work?
Tattooing and many of the tattoo artists' work I looked up to have inspired my work. I don’t think I would have ever started making jewellery without tattooing first.
When you begin to create, do you have a finished product in mind?
I usually have in mind what kind of piece I want to make and make a drawing which I then sculpt in 3D as one piece or several smaller ones, here I might tweak it a bit, then 3D print it, cast it and finish it by assembling it and deciding what polish to go for in the end.
How much of your creative ability do you think is innate? Or is your creativity a skill that you have developed?
I have always done something creative automatically (not very good stuff at the beginning) so I think creative desire is what has always been there for me and over time I developed and acquired different skills which I am now slowly combining and developing into one vision.
Which creative people do you admire? Why?
I admire designers, musicians, and creatives who have a very specific style and visual outcome and they create a whole new detailed universe around it that they let us into.
Can you tell me more about the artist residency you’ve created in Berlin?
The residency was my friends’ idea who thought it would be nice to experiment and create our own studio space as it can sometimes be a bit lonely to work in the arts after graduating from an art school and everyone is doing their own thing. The art residency we created in Berlin was fully funded by the European Union (Erasmus +). We got a grant and rented a studio space in a previous architecture office in Kreuzberg and invited 5 other artists to work on their project there for free while supporting them financially and with a budget for materials. After 5 months we had an exhibition of the works in a Gallery in Moabit.
Photography by Aristidiss Schnezler.
See more of Vera's work on their website and Instagram.
