BY SOFIA LUCIANO SANTIAGO
Jewels of Amina, better known as Jaidyn Amina Bryant is an oil painter and jewelry designer molding her way through the New Orleans art scene with her intricate copper wire and crystal ornamented pieces that adorn both body and soul.
Described by Bryant as a tool and an accessory, the crystals she choses for every piece intend to provide healing properties to those wearing them.
Crystals, stones, and copper glittered in the air as the sun blew over a box containing some of her recent work and a few of the first pieces she made when she began her business.
Bryant began designing jewelry at the age of 10 back in her hometown in Baton Rouge, LA and later moved to New Orleans to pursue her degree in Biology and continue making art.
“I'm a scientist. I actually like to spend a lot of time learning about natural processes and crystals. They're so beautiful. Crystals are very unique in the way that their atoms come together. They are conserved throughout the whole process of them being built. That's why they're even shaped the way they are, like if you look at the shape of a crystal it's literally like that down to the source. That's beautiful.”
Bryant said patterns and shapes are their main inspiration for her jewelry. Her wiring and wrapping designs are alive, showing movement inspired by the paintings she creates.
“My paintings are mostly surreal. So I like to do things that are realistic looking so not very stylized in form, but the colors are different or something at an impossible angle. I might introduce a pattern where there's not typically a pattern and so a lot of the time it might be some swirls or something abstract and my jewelry ends up looking like that,” said Bryant.
Bryant said she makes custom pieces for each of her clients, using different materials and crystals that meet the specific needs they are looking for.
“It's a physical thing, right and so it's supposed to be bringing that metaphysical aspect out of you. Your mindfulness and intention are key to move throughout your day. And so even for me, I'll choose a particular necklace in the morning because I'm thinking about what kind of day I want to have,” said Bryant.
“Meditation is a big thing. And so the way that I see crystals and when I see the things that are attributed to different particular crystals it is more about organizing your meditation then it actually just in itself being, this is what's bringing you these things,” said Bryant.
Bryant began making beaded jewelry and learning wrapping and wiring techniques in school where she was able to attend an arts program that opened the door for artistic expression from an early age.
“So many things that I picked up in my childhood. Now I'm like, Oh, wow, this is actually really important. Like yeah, I'm seeing it again. The pandemic made me slow down and made me focus, because I always knew I was gonna come back to it, I always knew I was gonna make wire wrapped jewelry but it was about when,” said Bryant.
The artist credits Aries from Froot Orleans as the person who gave her some wire that inspired her to start creating wire wrapped jewelry again.
“I feel like as artists there's always one thing you can come back to over and over you'll never get tired of and even though I paint I don't always paint. But I can always make jewelry right? All day constantly for 24 hours if I need to. I can mark different parts of my life based on what crystal I was wearing on my chain. And all that comes back to my art because this is something very consistent for me, something that my heart is really in, and something that I study,” said Bryant.
“You never know how stuff will come together. I just so happened to learn how to do this. And then my mom helped me do more, I sat on it for 10 years, and now look,” said Bryant.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY SOFIA LUCIANO SANTIAGO
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