I caught up with jewellery designer
Paula Kyle Walden after doing her makeup on a recent shoot… this girl makes incredible statement pieces for a living, but really... it is safe to say that she is quite the statement herself!
Describe yourself in a few words..
Creative, complicated and happy.
What lead you into jewellery designing/making?
From the age of six or seven, I recall making a collection of rings from everything and anything I could find and I've wanted to be a jeweller since. Professionally, when I finished high school, I didn’t get a jewellery apprenticeship like I’d hoped. So I did a Diploma in Interior Design. Which really was a blessing in disguise as I got to focus on all the elements and principles of design. So the following year when I did get a jewellery apprenticeship…design was at the heart of my construction process.
Your pieces are extremely beautiful and creative, what influences your designs?
Life generally....
How would you describe your designs in three words?
Artistic, intrinsic and true.
What materials do you enjoy working with the most?
I'm enjoying experimenting with acrylic most at the moment. The possibilities feel infinite.
How long does it take to make one piece of jewellery? From the design process to the final creation?
It really depends...sometimes I make up to 10 prototypes before a design is resolved, other times it's simply think then make and it's done.
What is your proudest moment? In life or as a jewellery designer?
Winning the international award for jewellery design at the ID Dunedin awards and knowing that Zhandra Rhodes admired my work... getting to walk the runway with hundreds clapping felt special too.
In the past you have collaborated with a lot of designers etc. If you could pick any another artist or designer to collaborate with who would it be and why?
There's too many....however, Karl Lagerfield, he comes from an out of this world imaginative place yet finds a balance with being commercially viable in the same instance.
Who is the most inspiring person you have ever met and why?
I have a friend who at the age of 23 had a dream that he was surfing on sand dunes. At the time, he was working a job that paid him 160k a year, yet he never really did well at school. He ended up quitting that job to pursue his dream and invented an artificial wave machine. It took him nearly a decade of going bankrupt, building numerous prototypes and just about teaching himself on everything there is to do with physics and engineering to accomplish his dream to becoming true. He's an inspiration to anyone who's met him as he's worked hard, suffered and endured the worst of times, yet has stayed true to his dream. What's even cooler is that he acknowledges that his reward was seeing his dream come reality and not the riches he's consequently made. He's the most grounded, giving, wisest and most successful person I've ever met.
Describe the person who wears your jewellery?
The women wearing my pieces are broad. The constant always is, they appreciate art and design and fashionably don't follow trends literally. They’re young at heart too.
Do you wear your own jewellery a lot?
I don't actually wear a lot of my jewellery...however, the one thing you'll always find me wearing is a ring I made myself when I was a second year apprentice.
What has been your biggest challenge in establishing your brand and your business?
Understanding that your business is an entity separate to you was something that took me some time to recognise. Financially, to begin with, I lost so much money too.... the nature of currency though is that it's always moving, so I've learnt to just keep going and to keep working and have proven that the incentive of money always gets recuperated.
What is your main focus or goal for 2012?
My goal this year is to get a few more onshore accounts and to progress the brand to international markets such as Korea, Singapore and Japan.
When can we expect to see your new collection ‘Dynasty’ and can you tell us something about it?
Dynasty will start to land in stores March - April. This collection for me is about self-development and becoming wiser - smarter. I feel like I’ve grown from within this year. It’s all based on squares. If you look to previous collections I’ve always correlated squares (and the colour blue) to logic. I felt like I needed to create building blocks. This year too, manufacturing and production has been influential due to the growing nature of the business. So in turn, I looked to the relationship of art deco and industrialisation.
What is your most precious staple in your wardrobe and why?
Perhaps a pair of Chanel shoes. They tend to work with any outfit.
Tell me something about yourself that many people might not know about you?
My favourite colour is yellow and I always doubt myself.
