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Meet Carina Collins of Art & Life in Phoenix

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Carina Collins.

Carina, please kick things off for us by telling us about yourself and your journey so far.
After graduating from the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandizing (FIDM) in LA, I worked as a designer downtown for many years for clothing brands like Butterfly Dropout, Grail clothing and Disney. I loved my job. It was living the career of my dreams. Then my husband took a job offer that brought us to Phoenix. I was commuting for a while- flying back and forth from Phoenix to LA, but as you can imagine that took a toll and I was pregnant, ready to start a family.

After my daughter was born, I found myself yearning for that creative outlet, but I was juggling being a new mom in a new city. While Phoenix is very cosmopolitan in some regards, it doesn’t have the budding fashion hub of Los Angeles where there are many job opportunities. All signs indicated that entrepreneurship was my route.

I had been designing jewelry as more of an outlet and a hobby for friends and family since I was a teenager, but as an adult, after trips to India where jewelry is a sign of adornment, I started studying technique. I had taken wire-wrapping classes in LA and loved scouring the marts for gemstones. One of my favorite childhood memories was watching my dad make jewelry for my mom and me. This was always in my blood. When I thought of how to reinvent myself, I went back to who I had always been and what had always filled me up. I signed up for a refresh on my soldering skills from college at a local jewelry studio and that ignited Luciam Designs.

Please tell us about your art. What’s the message or inspiration, what do you hope people take away from it? What should we know about your artwork?
In the beginning, Luciam was very much influenced by my trips to India -how they celebrated color and gemstone mysticism and the role that that jewelry plays in their culture. Jewelry is a personal expression, gifted as an adornment of extreme value. Each piece has a message. Later, I have also been influenced by my desert surroundings in Arizona. There is a history of Native American Indian culture also in which jewelry played a significant role in expression. There is a mystery to someone wearing rose quartz that wants to open up their heart to love. Many cultures have a rich history of metaphysical gemstone adornment and the emotional reasons people wore certain gemstones. I enjoy celebrating and connecting people to that in my work.

I love evolving as an artist and continuing to explore different cultural influences into my designs. My work ethos is that in our modern world, especially in the United States, we are such a melting pot of influences and cultures and jewelry is a beautiful art form to explore and celebrate what ties us together. If you somehow connect to the simplistic necklace of a vintage Japanese silver embroidery thread embellished with a moonstone gem from Sri Lanka for creativity, then you can embrace the idea that we can all learn from each other. I have had non-religious customers connect to the history and beauty of my designs that feature 1920’s vintage french Catholic enamel metal charms because they looked up the meaning. I guess the brand is really about harmony. Finding that harmony within yourself. Discovering that we share so much harmony in our beliefs and values with other cultures. That is harmony.

Whether you are a world traveler or a NatGeo subscriber, you can still enjoy feeling the antidote for wanderlust.

Choosing a creative path comes with many financial challenges. Any advice for those struggling to focus on their artwork due to financial concerns?
Starting up your business is challenging and requires a lot of commitment of time and unfortunately in my case acquiring some start-up debt. Running your company can be exhilarating but at times its not stable, not knowing when you will get your next paycheck. My biggest struggle is time management. The hardest part of running a business for me is wanting to feel successful as a wife and mother outside of my business.

Do you feel that it is important as an artist and business owner to give back to the community?
I wouldn’t argue with someone that said that artists are already giving back to the community by doing art -proving a medium for people to appreciate and learn about cultures, expression, and abstract thought. But as a business owner, you want to focus on specific alignments within a community. No true artist is disconnected from their community. If they are, they should move and find somewhere they connect.

Your community is your studio. When sales are down or there are things about the business side of things that make me wonder why I am doing this, my connection to my social responsibility outlet always ignites me. Since the inception of Luciam, I have always given back to local children’s educational organizations -most of them here in Phoenix, but some to support my friends’ causes in LA. I have three kids and I always think of children who are not born into a family where education or even survival is a given.

Recently, I teamed up with some amazing female philanthropists that are also friends that asked me to be part of their charitable organization, Nourish Every Child. I created a line of jewelry for them in which a hundred percent of the profits go to the organization. Nourish Every Child sponsors children in Haiti, by providing scholarships to impoverished children, including school tuition, uniform, books and a meal a day. For most of these children, this is their only daily meal.

I traveled to Haiti last Summer with Nourish Every Child to volunteer with the enrollment process for the scholarships given. I was in awe of how these small scholarships are given, have such an enormous impact allowing families to stay in intact, provide education, nutrition and end the cycle of poverty.

What’s the best way for someone to check out your work?
I have an online and etsy store. I’m at most of the local yoga and music festivals in Phoenix and am a part of a seasonal farmers market (October-April) Vincents Farmers market.

Contact Info:

Image Credit:
sandra tenuto photography

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