Katey Brunini

from BBeyond Jewellery: Spectacular and Collectible Pieces (2022)

Mana Matsuzaki

www.kbrunini.com

Katey Brunini is a fine jewellery artist who is the recipient of the Women’s Jewelry Association Award of Excellence in Design, the American Gem Trade Association’s Editors’ Choice Spectrum Award, the International Pearl Design Competition Award and the MarCom Platinum Award for website design, among many others.

Brunini’s work has been featured in the San Diego Museum of Natural History, the Carnegie Museum, the Gemological Institute of America’s Permanent Collection, the Headley-Whitney Museum (Smithsonian adjunct), as well as at Art Basel Miami. She was raised in a small beach community north of San Diego.

“My family was a nomadic tribe of sorts. Education and experiences are important to us. I studied history, art history, design, religion, and gemology, as well as doing jewellery apprenticeships in Italy and California. K. Brunini jewels was launched in the 1990’s and has global brand recognition for design, ethics, and authentic creativity influenced by Mother Nature’s rhymes, and interconnected to a universal rhythm.”

Her collections are thematically created and organised – an interesting concept in itself.

“I grew up with a librarian mother, so everything in my life has become a series of book chapters organized like the Dewey Decimal system. I don’t really believe in chronological time, thus threads of feelings and sentiments guide my thought process. Themes rise like cream to the top when freed from boundaries and boxes.”

Brunini’s pieces are complex and intricately built, some with a hint of Edwardian grandeur; others with a tribal whimsy or bohemian chunkiness. The rings, in particular, are definitive statement/ conversation pieces, the use of organic materials alongside precious gems and metals providing an interesting counter point. This, she says, is a play on raw and refined, good and evil. The idea is to flip it on its side, and then flip it again.

“Life is boring when everyone looks and acts the same. Individuality has to be earned in earnest in an age that celebrates “followers”. Decades of thoughts and ideas and millennia of practical techniques merge in our pieces. Conventional rules have blurred edges and they flow into a bigger picture. I find the prettiest ugly, and the ugliest pretty. Timelessness is the goal. The pieces say, “ I stand out in the crowd, not because I am the loudest or the flashiest, but because silently, I touch the depths.” Our clients know what this means - they are not followers.”

Brunini loves rubies and opals, especially together. “They pair exceptionally well.....unexpectedly”. She does create on commission, as well as a retail range.

“I feel the most important aspect of creating a commissioned piece is to be a focused and good listener. I am a conduit to the combined sensitivities of the creator and the wearer. The jewel is meant to be worn, not hidden away, so it must resonate with the adorned. I have no ego involved with the final creation, I am merely a surrogate of beauty. There must exist a unilateral trust. I trust in the grace and violence of Mother Nature.”