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| Fernando Dasilva. (All photos & designs © Fernando Dasilva. All rights reserved.) |
Fernando Dasilva! Latin beat. Railroads. Brazilian heat. Harper’s Bazaar hot list. Sincerely Hot . Designs that are dramatic and sophisticated.* Style for the Menswear aficionado that breaks. down. barriers. Body art adornment. Fashion. Exhibitions. Transforming taboo. Afro-Brazilian art. Orishas. Old Hollywood. Postmodern inspirations. Lakshmi and Artemis. Sugar Daddy and Chocolate Mint. No boundaries. No fear. Just DaLiciuUs.™ Flavor.
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As an artist and designer, Fernando Dasilva is an international sensation. A native Brazilian, his work has been commissioned by many American companies -- including ACN (Jewel School), Beadalon, John Bead, and Swarovski --and has also been shown in exhibits and boutiques across the United States, including New York galleries. Dasilva is an expert artist for Jewel School, making regular LIVE guest appearances and teaching at Jewel School events as a Beadalon representative. He will be presenting the new Artistic mesh rainbow of colors during his April 22 and 23 visit on Jewel School, a product Dasilva is immensely talented at using in his innovative jewelry designs.
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| Make these cool wire mesh earrings with Fernando Dasilva |
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"Fernando Dasilva creates dazzling earrings with wire mesh on BBJ" 1602-3 |
Two interviews with Dasilva -- including an interview at the Shashama Gallery in New York for "Bridging Afro-Brazilian Dieties -- the Orishas -- with Mother Nature's Four Elements" -- and a video tutorial, "Fernando Dasilva demonstrates a necklace using wire-wrapped frames" are also featured there.
Dasilva is the author of
two books: Modern Expressions and Bead and Wire Jewelry Exposed, which he co-authored with Margot Potter and Katie Hacker. An excerpt from "Modern Expressions" -- a modern yet indigenous Brazilian style necklace -- is available as a free pdf tutorial on the BBJ website. Two of Dasilva's publications are for sale as electronic downloads at the Interweave April Sales Event: "Stringing 2005" and "Stringing 2006." Also available for pre-order is Season 16 Beads Baubles & Jewels TV (which includes Dasilva, Wyatt White, Christiane Ross, Anie Piliguian, Jackie Truty, Leslie Rogalski).
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Delicate filigree components. Bead Style May'12 |
Dasilva's most recent magazine publication is "Bead Style" magazine, May 2012. His gorgeous necklace is the star design and graces the cover; a design created with his special gift for rethinking and redesigning jewelry findings in new ways. Dasilva's clever use of kidney earring wires is the cover story, "Flip findings for a new focus" -- which become ingenious, perfect components when flipped to fit gemstone rondelle beads.
The issue of Bead Style magazine celebrates spring -- with Dasilva's "mixed media garden necklace" made of brass filigree colored with silver guilders paste, a design by Lori Anderson combining birds' nests, patinated chain & toggle, and the wired briolettes of Madeline Adriani Pratama -- in "Designs We Love" (pg14). Dasilva shares his thoughts on Bead Style at "Modern Expressions" his lovely, sensitive blog.
Dasilva's talent for fashion, his special ability to redefine jewelry findings and design elements, and his mixture of diverse culture, postmodern form & classic aethetics make him one of the most admired and progressive jewelry artists today. As co-author and artist Margot Potter notes in her Amazon review of Dasilva's book, Modern Expressions: Creating Fabulous and Fashionable Jewelry with Easy-to-Find Elements, Fernando Dasilva is the "only DIY designer to have been written up in Women's Wear Daily magazine and Harper's Bazaar and is the only male Ambassador in the Create Your Style with SWAROVSKI ELEMENTS initiative."
In Modern Expressions: Creating Fabulous and Fashionable Jewelry with Easy-to-Find Elements, Dasilva bridges two important issues often marginalized in the handcrafted jewelry arts: fashion design and Menswear accessories. He includes sketches of fashion ideas, stating, "the fashion sketches that accompany some of the designs are a guide to help you select the best outfits from your closet and set the right mood for your inner diva." For example, Dasilva suggests coordinating his design entitled "Hip to be Square" with a square cut neckline and dark trimmed sleeves.
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| Fernando Dasilva at the Shashama Gallery in New York |
As a leading edge, innovative designer, it is no surprise Dasilva's Modern Expressions include a "meanswear gallery" with designs like "casablanca memories," "sugar daddy," and "steel power" -- finally ending the taboo against gentlemen's jewelry arts and addressing the sexist ideology that handcrafted jewelry is for women only. In her Amazon book review of Modern Expressions Katie Hacker writes, "In addition to techniques, materials and step-by-step photos, this book also has a gallery of jewelry designs especially for men, which is pretty rare in beading books! Fernando's love for fashion comes through on every page."
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Get ready for summer with this hot necklace! -- Fernando Dasilva DesignInstructions for this beautiful feather necklace are on the Beadalon UK Blog |
Indeed, Fernando Dasila's love for fashion comes through his every design. From his ocean-inspired first designs, to his intricate mixed media representations of the Orishas for New York Gala art events, Dasilva brings an aesthetic for the extraordinary and courage to all of his designs: "I'm not afraid of challenges," he says, "in my mind jewelry and clothing are the only true artistic expressions for transforming ideas into body adornments."
Whether treating yourself or a loved one to original Fernado Dasilva jewelry, hand creating with Modern Expressions or Bead & Wire Jewelry Exposed, watching interviews or fine public television tutorials, or transforming blogs and pdfs into inspired works of your own, Fernando Dasilva will take your jewelry to the next level: where art and creation meet a locomotion of design elements and innovative possibilities riding courageously on the leading edge.
*Katie Hacker's introduction of Fernando Dasilva: "[he] specializes in dramatic and sophisticated jewelry." (Beads Baubles & Jewels Season 16, show 1602-3)
As a wire sculpture artist I find his work to be so inspiring, and a man that can design Jewelry for women that is so perfect and desirable is truley a gifted artist.
ReplyDeleteJewel School & Beadalon found themselves a gem! I love his work. He is indeed gifted!
DeleteI love seeing men in jewelry design -- I keep telling my son that lots of men make and design jewelry! Awesome post!
ReplyDeleteExactly! My ten year old grandson loves the color pink and has long hair. Yet when he had a friend coming over to play video games, and I asked about making jewelry too during their visit, my grandson looked horrified and told me not to mention it. I decided to quietly bring out some really great beads and fun findings and just work on some jewelry myself, and his friend Julio was thrilled with all of it! They ended up having a blast making wonderful Mother's Day jewelry together!
ReplyDelete