An Interview with Studio Night and Morning

Every month during the First Friday Art Walk in Denver’s Art District on Santa Fe we bring in an artist or maker for a pop-up! This month, one of the artists we’re featuring is Studio Night and Morning. Ahead of their pop-up with us, we asked them some questions about themselves, their art, and sustainability. Enjoy!

When did you start making and selling art?
Studio Night and Morning is made up of a two person team. We were both needing to get out of our previous jobs and knew that we wanted to do something together. Between us we had backgrounds with both technical and artistic talent and turning those focuses into jewelry made sense as a medium we could collaborate in. There was a slowly developing vision of the type of jewelry we want to make, really trying to think about what types of pieces we would want to wear ourselves, and it was during the pandemic that we began to slowly acquire the necessary materials and knowledge to start working towards that. 

What inspires your work?
Inspired by cartoons lurking in shadowy corridors and objects as visual narratives, we are always trying to capture stories and fairytales and compress them down into something jewelry sized. When it goes well there can be a lot of depth in a single piece without taking the whole thing too seriously.

What does sustainability mean to you and how does your art reflect that belief?
It is of the utmost importance that those who choose to adorn themselves with our creations can both understand and feel good about the history and materials that went into the making process. Jewelry, and the materials used to make it, share the fashion industries’ ethical and environmental gray area when it comes to sourcing materials. We use exclusively recycled metals and packaging materials, and look closely at the sourcing of any stones used. We prioritize stones mined in the United States and additionally use vintage stones over buying newly mined ones. 

We also strive to work in non-traditional materials and elevate ordinary objects. An example of this is our river rock series where we carved and polished stones from Colorado’s Rio Grande and incorporated them into fine jewelry. We also strive to make affordable pieces that are of heirloom quality. No creation is without environmental impact and so it is important that these creations are ones you can keep for a lifetime and beyond.

Aside from our personal work another aspect of our business and our mission in sustainability involves jewelry repairs and repurposing old jewelry. So many people have a jewelry box full of pieces they don’t wear for one reason or another. We love being able to take old, out of style or broken jewelry and heirlooms that we can melt down and repurpose into something with new life that can carry or redefine the old meaning of those pieces.

What is your goal as an artist?
Live the art life.

If you were an animal/breakfast cereal/ice cream flavor/style of architecture what would you be?
It would have to be something shapeshifting, we are still searching for our aesthetic and constantly trying to hone in on what it is we love about jewelry. It requires so much experimentation in form and technique which is why we do all one of a kind pieces. I could envision us as a lazy, cloud watching sky. Amorphous shapes that merge, depart and can be incredibly graphic at times. 

What’s next for you? Are there any projects or goals you are currently working toward that you'd like to share about?
It has taken a long time to build up the skillset and our everyday inventory to a point where we can take some time to try and work on a more elaborate and cohesive series of jewelry. We get a lot of inspiration from books and right now our notebooks are filled with notes and sketches for a series surrounding a Jungian interpretation of Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying. The book is extremely graphic and there are so many beautiful fragments to put together. 

Are there any artistic mediums you’d like to explore that you haven’t yet?
There is an ancient technique of creating miniature portraits through painting with kilned fired enamels. It is a time consuming and technical process but can bring in painting’s more intuitive and spontaneous aspect that we try to introduce into our work . We have been learning enameling and hope to start incorporating our own painting aesthetic into wearable pieces.

Thanks for reading! If you’re interested in being one of our featured artists, send us an email. We’re always looking to expand our community and showcase the talent our city has to offer.

Until next time,
“Be excellent to each other”