TOGETHER film series

When I started STRIPE+BEAT I needed an excuse for it to go live. I was really aware and alarmed by the amount of stuff already produced by people. I shopped pre-owned fashion and accessories for a long time. So I didn’t want to start yet another beaded jewellery brand. But I also understood that making had become my main creative outlet, a practice that restored my energy and helped me to keep sane. And I sort of knew it was worth sharing with others, if I do say so myself. So to grant me a permission to establish the brand I tasked myself to treat it as an experiment. The hypothesis that needed to be proven or disproven boiled down to the question: could I do it all on my own? All meaning: supplies sourcing, design, production, shipping, online shop building, marketing… product photography – and modeling.

Modeling? That was the most uneasy job. And I never even showed my face at first, god forbid! I thought my hands were ugly, and it took so many pictures of them wearing bracelets and rings before I began to accept them as they were, with little scars, spots, veins and non-existent manicure. I love them now! Come on, how can I not. They connect the invisible world inside my head to the visible world outside it by making things like no other hands will, just because each person’s imagination can never be recreated by another one’s. How incredible it is that I have these special hands to channel this magic.

Long story short, I proved I could do everything alone. The quality of ideas, design, production and service – unquestionable. The success of marketing and sales – questionable. So I moved on, and the brand morphed into a bigger more fulfilling idea too. I started collecting pre-existing jewellery, textiles and objets trouvés and upcycling them into conceptual pieces and art objects.

But it was still a bit hard to photograph necklaces on a model. I cut my head off (how does that sound, huh?). I got proposals from professional and semi-professional models and their agencies. It felt… unintersting. I tried telling friends I would like to work with them as my models. Never happened either. And then this issue has morphed too. I mean who needs another commercial photoshoot, yes on real people, but still it’s so boring to do it for the sake of product presentation. So I took one of my ideas – short videos of people I know and trust wearing my jewellery – and turned it into a documentary project.

TOGETHER film series is about how we open up through the work, places, objects we love, find self-fulfillment, move forward, and grow – fueled by that passion – while gaining important insights along the way. Sometimes there’s no need to even talk about it as it shows regardless how vibrantly alive and how uniquely beautiful the person is.