Pussy Couture pt. 2 Interview with Pearls Before Swine  May 26, 2008

"Studded upholstery has always fascinated me. I find it strangely sensual, the overstuffed bulges resembling female breasts and buttocks and the buttoned crevices seeming to invite the seated to poke their fingers in and inspect the folds."

Nikki Majajas's Label, Pearls Before Swine is the Jewelry label I talked about in my previous blog (Pussy Couture). In her current collection, "the Body Upholstery Series", Nikki incorporates the look of upholstered leather furniture and various parts of the female anatomy into large chunky bangles, necklaces and rings.

I was able to catch up with Nikki and ask her a few questions. Here is what she had to say.

Me: How long have you been designing/making jewelry? how did you get started?

Nikki: "I have been making jewellery for the last 3 years and love it! I've studied fashion design and shoe making in the past, but jewellery is my medium, i love that it can incorporate so many elements (architecture, sculpture, metalwork etc) and you can create more extreme, wearable objects than with clothing. what i love about the Body Upholstery series is that it is cheeky but doesn't slap you in the face with it, most people don't even realize there are nipples and vaginas adorning the pieces, it can be the wearer's little fun secret."

Me: How did you come up with the name "Pearls Before Swine"?

Nikki: "The phrase Pearls Before Swine comes from Jesus' sermon on the mount, if you look it up you may be able to get an idea about why I took the name for my jewellery label.
it is tongue in cheek, even though i take what i am doing very seriously I dont think i should become too serious."

Me: What inspires you as a designer?

Nikki: "Studded upholstery has always fascinated me. I find it strangely sensual, the overstuffed bulges resembling female breasts and buttocks and the buttoned crevices seeming to invite the seated to poke their fingers in and inspect the folds."

Me: What exactly goes into making these lovely pieces?

Nikki: "I carved the vagina, nipple and two other button designs in wax, you should have seen my first attempt at carving pussy. laughable, you wouldn't think i owned one myself. I did a google image search of "spread open pussy" and downloaded quite a few different examples to work from. then the buttons were all cast in bronze, i drilled holes in them and tapped the holes so i could screw the base plates in and then were all gold plated then i made my cushioned bangles, brooches and silver rings to attach them all to."

Me: Where are your designs sold?

Nikki: "right now i am working on developing a silver range that hopefully i can get into shops, but i have my bangles on Etsy: www.pearlsbeforeswine.etsy.com, and i will soon have the I Live on Zandra Road series on there too.

Be sure to check out Nikki's blog http://pearlsbeforeswines.blogspot.com/ for more info on her label!