Raïssa Bump studied jewelry at RISD and Alchimia. She exhibits nationally, teaches workshops, and is an Art Jewelry Forum board member. Raïssa’s skilled at making intricate one-of-a-kind pieces and beautiful edition collections–all of which speak to her interest in textiles and methodical handwork. Through teaching, facilitating, and writing, she offers ideas and practices about jewelry technique, creative process, and professional practices (including atypical ones related to wellness, mindset, habits) and how they integrate with our day-to-day lives. She grew up in the Hudson Valley and lives and works on the central Oregon coast.
About Raïssa’s Work
In my studio practice, metal primarily comes from recycled sources. Other materials find their way to me via excursions to estate sales, gifts from an auction, walks on city streets or beaches alike. That is to say, in many cases they’ve served a purpose and lived a life before coming into my hands. For commissions I often work with a client’s personal stash of disregarded, broken, mismatched, or sentimental jewelry. I always feel I’m collaborating with materials, with humanity. I pay attention so that my energy, love, spirit, dedication, and intention go into the work -- human energy pooling into an object which then holds, for instance, both the weight of the moment and a glimmering hope for what’s possible.
RJM makes me think about the holistic journey that revolves around jewelry. A continuity of what came before and the potential of what will come after. RJM makes me think about the techniques I use, the materials I employ. It asks me to reflect, consider, and be in pursuit of information – all so that my minute footprint can stand strong in regards to the impact it’s having. RJM makes me think about the pace of our culture, which often has little regard for the human and environmental consequences of its consumer based approach.
With materials in hand, I start with something, often not knowing where I will end up. This is where my studio habit of keeping scraps, cutoffs, seconds, unused parts, pieces, samples … comes in handy. I use them as inspiration, fodder to begin, and also as content. I find this process to be both creative and resourceful.
For my RJM artist project pieces, I take this same approach. In relation to recent explorations happening in my studio, I requested chains of all kinds, pieces that had openings, voids, spaces that I could stitch into, random clasps, and small faceted beads. I familiarized myself with what I received by arranging the contents into color and material stories. I edited out all the things that didn’t speak to me. I dove in. Keeping materials identifiable, I wove, sewed and stitched, knotted and twisted. As I worked I considered the life the pieces had before showing up in my studio. I considered the life they will have after leaving my studio. I find surprise and delight in the finished pieces. I see them as keepsakes - versions of memento mori or mourning jewelry - tokens of remembrance.
“Likenesses depend on the transformations an artist sets in motion: consider the way in so many of these pieces, hardness is worked into flexibility, opacity is made to reveal a hidden clarity, how a cut-out, petal-like design suggests an abundant offering of flowers, and then, step back a bit – even the spaces between the blooms themselves form airy bouquets. The emotional qualities of materials, too, might be expressed by way of metaphor: in Raïssa Bump’s hand, a brooch can be complex, nuanced, full of lively contradictions like the best conversationalists — both open and self-contained, inviting and sharp. Spend time engaging (brooch or person) and it’s clear: what’s just below the surface unexpectedly asserts. What’s on top, unveils itself slowly. The urbane has its rough spots; that which is raw, its elegance.”
Raïssa’s Process
