Julia Sullivan calls jewelry a drawing that can be worn out into the world. The Providence jeweler, who founded RA HA Jewelry in 2016, earned a Bachelor in Fine Arts degree for Printmaking from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2010.
She calls jewelry “an exciting medium” because it is something a person can “wear out into the world.”
Here is a conversation with Sullivan. The complete interview can be found here.
Julia Sullivan says her work is an attempt to help the person wearing jewelry feel confident. She derives much of her inspiration from her mother, who was a clothing
designer.
“So much of my life growing up was surrounded by my mother and my mother working and having an art practice that was really important to her and also being successful and I was always just part of it,” Sullivan says. “That was such a joyful, positive, strong way to grow up and I really hope that I can give my daughter something similar to it.”
Sullivan uses either sterling silver or 14-carat gold fill wire when she is creating a new earring. She works from a template she created, “just a pattern that I essentially trace in three dimensions.”
Sullivan’s art background is an essential part of her creativity.
“I consider drawing and wire bending to be the same practice,” she says. “It’s manipulating a line in a way that can convey the feeling or the idea that I’m trying to embody.”
She “marinates ideas” in her head while designing new pieces.
“I’ll just doodle for a while and play around with wire and see what feels good because often an idea I have doesn’t translate at all,” Sullivan says. “I’ll realize that it’s totally not an earring, but maybe it’s a necklace.”
Celebrating the female form in her work is important to Sullivan.
“I think it’s important to have the female form be out in the world in a less stigmatized way,” she says. “It’s an important thing to celebrate, especially especially now as a mother.”
To Sullivan, earrings are like small sculptures.
“I mean, jewelry is just small art that you can wear,” she says.
