|
|
|
I have been an artist all of my life, and my life as a jewelry designer began at about the same time
that I began teaching yoga. It began in 2002 when I quit my job in Chicago, moved to Vermont,
and entered one of those great periods in life when forces converge to create something
wonderful.
After close to 10 years in the corporate world, I was ready for a lifestyle change, and I knew I
wanted to make a living doing something creative. (There has been a definite theme to my
passions. At the age of 5, I went around my neighborhood trying to sell coloring books I had made
on bright orange drawing paper. Years later at 23, I supported myself for about 6 months making
and selling hand-painted silk-scarves.) The first year of my time in Vermont I spent designing a line
of hand-painted women's clothing (whose design-motif was - surprise - spiral based). While the final
collection was beautiful, every step in the process was like swimming upstream. So, after a soul-
searching trip to New Mexico, I decided it was time to come up with a plan B.
For years I had been drawing pictures of the Illusion earrings that are now part of the Harmony
Collection. I would take the picture to jewelers and ask them to make them for me in gold-filled
wire. They all said they would do it in 14k, but not in gold-filled. So, in the summer of 2003 I decided
to make them myself. And I LOVED it! Once I started, I was hooked.
I began making earrings, bracelets, necklaces, anklets, and armlets, each with a unique set of
energetic properties. As a jewelry designer, I drew (and still draw) inspiration from my practice of
yoga and from the sacred art of cultures around the world. The spiral is an ancient symbol of life,
Universal energy, the energy of the Sun and feminine or Goddess energy and a very protective reiki
symbol. Movement is both healing and cleansing. These two themes became central to my
jewelry designs, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Because I am something of a perfectionist (Yoga has been wonderful for mellowing me out, and
Astanga yoga is perfect for type A people.), I find the focus and attention to detail required to do
the delicate wire work, and to maintain regularity of line in the spirals, especially while hammering,
makes my creative process a moving meditation.
I have two goals with my collections:
to create beautiful, wearable, art imbued with positive energy;
and to bring an awareness of the concepts of Yoga, Chakras, and Universal energy to people who
might not otherwise encounter them.
Every design in the màrs◦ya collection has a unique set of energetic properties and each piece
comes with a card describing its properties. This makes màrs◦ya jewelry the perfect gift and
provides you with a lasting reminder of the properties of your piece.
My work has been featured in such publications as Yoga Magazine, Fit Yoga, Yoga Journal,
Pregnancy Magazine and Women’s Health and Fitness.
I hope you choose to bring the màrs◦ya collection of yoga inspired, chakra activating and aura
purifying jewelry into your life.
Namaste~
Marsya Ancker, designer
|
|
|
|
