Interview with Designer Kara Yoo | Canadian Christmas
This Christmas, we are going back to Tracey's roots and presenting a ‘Canadian Christmas’. A carefully curated selection of gifts, sourced from independent brands, different regions of Canada and completely exclusive, not sold anywhere else in the UK apart from Tracey Neuls London.
Kara Yoo Jewelry began in 2012 with the mission to create versatile and thoughtfully crafted pieces for women of all ages. All designs are conceptualized by Kara and hand-crafted in-house, in the beautiful city of Vancouver, Canada. Read on to find out about her inspirations and creative process.
Do you make your jewellery by hand, is it a hands-on process for you?
Yes, it is a very hands-on process! Most of our pieces are fabricated from raw
materials and made by hand by our makers in our studio. Kara Yoo designs all of the pieces and either creates the prototypes or is involved in every step of prototyping. Once a design is perfected, our makers start production.
What is the inspiration behind your designs?
My designs are largely inspired by nature and architecture. I love pairing natural
shapes and textures with contrasting geometric forms which you can see a lot of in our new collection Ulla.
Who would you like to see wearing your jewellery?
There is no one in particular; however, I love seeing random individuals wearing our
pieces. I’m most excited when I’m out and spot someone unexpectedly wearing a Kara Yoo piece!
What do you think is the significance of jewellery for modern women?
“Costume jewelry is not made to give women an aura of wealth, but to make them
beautiful.” - Coco Chanel
Jewellery in the past was a symbol of wealth, although now it is also worn as a
statement of your personal style or a reminder of something important to you. I think jewellery is significant because it shows your individuality, personal sense of style, and is an outlet for self-expression.
How do you source materials for your creations? Is it an important part of your
ethos?
Yes, the source of our materials is an important part of our business! We are
increasingly looking for ethically sourced and environmentally conscious materials.
Our metals are primarily sourced from North America. We try to source reclaimed and recycled metals when possible and recycle all of the extra bits of metal leftover from the production process.
We are also in the process of designing a small engagement ring collection made entirely from unmined, lab-created genuine gemstones called Moissanite – these stones have a minimal environmental impact and there is no question as to how they are mined because they are grown in a lab, in a controlled environment.
What do you think is the future of jewellery? How does it adapt to the evolving
world?
There are new ways of modelling jewellery -- traditional techniques like hand-carving wax are being replaced with newer, faster processes likes 3D modelling. This means more jewellery will be created by more people, not only highly skilled artisans. There will be a wider range of price points as less time will be spent on creating models making it accessible to almost everyone.
I think we also see jewellery try to adapt to the evolving world in the form of functional pieces using wearable technology that is incorporated in rings and watches. As smaller mechanisms are made, I think we’ll see more of these pieces that aren’t as bulky.
See more photography of Kara's work here.
