As light as a flutter of butterflies
By: Saskia van Es
Shapes from everyday life and fragments of memories become elegant jewellery with Mayumi Okuyama. A design starts with a flutter of butterflies, for example. The shape of butterflies silhouetted against the sky has such a lightness that your eyes can hardly comprehend it. At Mayumi Okuyama’s workbench, this phenomenon is translated into feathery lines of brass and steel wire. The lines dance around your neck, on your ear or in your hair. Last year she won an important prize in Brazil with it.
Mayumi Okuyama does not limit herself to one material and is also constantly exploring new materials. The material always surprises her. She loves that the material makes the outcome of her plan unpredictable.
Mayumi Okuyama comes from a Japanese family that has lived in Brazil for several generations. Both cultures are present in her and in her work. Perhaps that is why she says the jewellery she makes is like a “home for identities and memories”.
Winner FIO Contest in Brazil.
