Jesse Mathes’ art has been inspired by her time as a traveler and, more recently, her role as a mother.
A Colorado native with degrees in metalsmithing and jewelry, Jesse Mathes creates large-scale pieces using various metals that act as body adornments, ranging from corsets to collars, inspired by her travels in France.
Some of her pieces focus on the face, covering the wearer’s face to illustrate a desire to hide, while others poke out in all directions, illustrating the feeling of aggression.
She also makes smaller-scale jewelry. Generally, working with crocheting techniques, creating a shape she finds attractive, then recreating it and attaching the separate parts to create one final piece.
“That’s what I usually do for the crochet stuff. I’ve started to really like doing a repetition of a simple form. So I’ll make one and then a bunch of them, maybe experiment with color first and see which colors I can put together and then I’ll go from there.
Today, with two young children, she says that her work is centered on motherhood, for the most part moving away from traditional jewelry and more toward sentimental pieces for herself. Mathes creates solid interpretations of her emotional state, showing an extension of herself in every piece she creates.
Jesse Mathes will be in the Jewelry Studio demonstrating large scale metal adornments on January 24 and 25.
