Meet Nicole Hanna

I have been creative for as long as I can remember, first starting my artistic journey sketching my favorite characters during Saturday morning cartoons. I would sit on my porch as a pre-teen and wax poetic, a la Henry David Thoreau, about the wind in the trees and the brisk autumn air. It was all very pretentious, even then, when I was too young to understand the word. BUT, it did give me an appreciation for the beauty of things and words, and how they work and wind together to create a cohesive picture of the creative spirit. This is the spirit I aimed to cultivate and nurture, both in myself and in others.

Since then, my artistic endeavors have been bountiful, including (but not limited to): fantasy sketching, poetry, short (forever unfinished) fiction, jewelry making, photography (especially that which involves costumes and cats), seed bead embroidery, pine needle basketry, raw hide rattles, ritual headdresses and even small (mostly unsuccessful) forays into clay sculpture and macrame.

Mission

There is a sense of order in almost every aspect of my life. I like matching dinnerware, the same shirt in eight different colors, making hospital corners on bedsheets. There is a part of me which needs these patterns, this ritual practice of order, for creativity to germinate, grow and thrive. Because out of order, chaos can find its freedom.

I use wire to disrupt the idea that I must plan and organize and arrange systematically a line of motion. Instead, I want to observe the natural world, but ignore its rules. The challenge, for me, is to see beauty in the unfinished lines, the hair thin wires wrapped and kinked, and to capture the conspicuous curves of my own emotional ride and transport my thoughts through my hands, into the wire I wrap.

I want each piece I craft to carry a piece of me forever in its layers, wrapped tightly in its weaves so, if you look close enough, you can see my pain, happiness, frustrations and satisfaction.

Vision

I am deeply influenced by the freedom of not knowing. Not knowing where I'm going or how I'm getting there, but relishing the journey regardless. And this is reflected in my art, through a lack of planning or foresight, and the drive to dive into the pool, no matter how dark or deep its waters. I live my daily life within the confines of order and rules so that I might indulge my creativity, and break the rules I've learned.

Creativity is fragile. It can be broken, disrupted, entangled in rules and steps and direction, so I encourage students to find that thin line to creative freedom and follow it. Break the rules, ignore direction, craft your own road from the bricks of what was, and let the cracks show.

While I endeavor to provide quality jewelry and equally worthwhile tutorials, I also embrace imperfection, and encourage others to mess up. Mess up often and loudly. Mess up and find the beauty in the tangles. Your story is always most interesting in the shambles and disorder.