Don't Just Say It ... Wear It
Welcome to a landscape of one of a kind designs inspired by unique gemstones stones, vintage, and handcrafted components.
Not content to settle into a one-track crafting life, Alicia is constantly exploring, teaching herself how to do things she never thought she could do. She's created original components with polymer clay, image transfer, resin, and metal wire, as well as found objects.
She is deeply fascinated with natural gemstones and is looking forward to deepening her metal working and lapidary skills in the future. In the summer of 2012 she began working with fabric and created her first collection of cocktail hats and fascinators. Most recently, her deepening spiritual practice has found its way into the work in the form of mediation aids and wearable rocks and crystals believed to offer metaphysical properties.
It all began when Alicia was awarded an individual artist grant from the Pennsylvania Humanities Council in Arts Commentary in 2009 on the strength of her work in arts journalism. She created a multimedia presentation on the resurgence of vaudeville, cabaret, and burlesque aesthetics in popular performance. Beyond attitude, this aesthetic manifested visually in costume and adornment as much as graphic design and style of sound. Looking to offer something for sale at these presentations beyond the usual marketing merchandise, Alicia started stringing together examples of the aesthetics she was lecturing about in the tangible form of jewelry.
She was surprised by how much she enjoyed this work. It was a delight to make things with her hands and in a tactile way that did not involve looking at a computer screen. Her designs were well received and a monster was born.
Already using the SubVerse Aphrodesia name for her freelance theater and photography endeavors, Alicia added this ongoing AnthraChic branch of accessories created with the stubborn determination of her coal mining ancestry and a deliberate blurring of the line between visual and verbal expression.
