Artist Q+A with Miesje Chafer
Miesje Chafer is an artist and designer who creates patterned contemporary beaded jewelry + textiles using bright, playful color palettes + curious geometric shapes.
Join Miesje this October in Puglia, Italy to learn all about her approach to pattern design, color and beaded jewelry.
But first, let's get to know a little more about her..
Where did your interest in art and design come from?
A good question, considering my lack of interest in art at school! My mum is an artist and always encouraged me and my brothers to be creative and my parents often took us to art galleries as children. My grandmother taught me to knit at a very young age and I've always enjoyed messing around with different crafts and mediums. I honestly think it's a deep desire to make things that has pushed me forward, I struggle to sit and not have something to do with my hands. I love the notion that you can take a bunch of raw materials and form something completely new with them, something totally original that has come from the depths of your brain, I find that very exciting.
Tell us a bit about your story and career path.
My career path into making as been a little unorthodox, particularly as I didn't especially enjoy art at school. I actually trained as nurse, as after college I couldn't decide what I wanted to do and nursing seemed like a sensible choice. After a year of working as a nurse a friend and I took a year off to travel around the world and upon returning I felt the urge to do something creative. Completely randomly I signed up to a three-day screen printing course and that was it - I was completely hooked. I started screen printing on fabric and making a few simple products which I started selling at local fairs. Very quickly I was asked to do some wholesale for two very well known shops (I won't lie, I was completely overwhelmed by this but I got stuck in and did it anyway) and from there my business and practice has grown and developed to where it is today.
Designing the beaded jewellery came about as I wanted to to create a range of jewellery that reflected and complemented my textile work but I wasn't keen to use textiles as it didn't seem robust enough a medium. I stumbled upon the art of bead weaving and everything fell into place - it proved to be the perfect vehicle for my designs.
Who would you say your contemporary jewellery workshop is for?
This week is for anyone who has an interest in beading, an interest in colour and and interest in pattern design and who might be unclear about how to combine and work with those three elements to create a practical object.
Giving yourself time to be creative is really the greatest gift and I want participants to feel they have had the opportunity to learn practical and theoretical skills that can help them understand the design process.
Above all else though I want this retreat to be fun! Beading can be very meditative and is a wonderful way to allow your hands and mind to connect to find a little peace in this crazy world.
What techniques are you most excited to share and teach in Puglia?
All of them! But I think the process of taking an idea or design and transferring it into a wearable object is the part I am most looking forward to teaching. I think this is the process that people most often struggle with and probably the most difficult to explain. I am hoping to provide a productive and nurturing environment in which students can explore their ideas and create something they are really proud of.
What advice do you have for other artists?
Do the thing. Every opportunity you have to be making or creating - do it. Even if you percieve it to be 'bad' or not your best work it doesn't matter, all the work you make will eventually lead you onto creating work that is authentic and reflective of you as an artist. Also keep sketchbooks. Fill those guys up. You have no idea what you will look back on and use as inspiration in the future but if you don't keep sketchbooks or records of your creative experiments you will have nothing to look back on. And lastly, being creative is not a well lit path, no one else is mapping it out for you. Maybe the next step is illuminated but beyond that you have no idea what's coming and that's ok, you just have to trust the process.
Tell us about a favourite collaboration or project and what you’ve loved and learned from that?
This is not a recent project but I would say it had a huge influence on my work. A few years ago I was employed by textile artist Alice Kettle to work on the 'Stitch a Tree' project. We asked the public to submit small embroidered trees which we then stitched onto a large wall hanging. The project was to raise awareness of the plight of refugees and displaced people across the world and ended up turning into a massive piece of work (72 square metres!) which was displayed in the Whitworth gallery in Manchester. Up until that point I hadn't done any embroidery, but it went on to become an important part of my practice. I would now say that hand stitching is the skill that I love the most (to do and to teach) and will hopefully continue to inform the way I work for years to come.
What did I not ask you that you wish I had asked?
Why are craft and making so important?
For a long time I think the notions of crafting and making were seen as the poor relations of the art world, often considered women's work and not of any financial, political or societal value. Recently though there has been a shift towards recogising the enormous value in these crafting traditions, especially at a time when AI and digital creation seems to be replacing the need for humans and human interaction.
When we create something with our hands it feels like a tiny act of rebellion, especially when we work in close proximity to others. Making is a universally unifying experience and one that I think is very important to protect and nurture, especially at a time when the world is becoming an increasingly more disparate and difficult place to inhabit.
