ENCHANTED WORLD
Valentina Casella, Sicilian archaeologist and artisan. Born and live in Messina.
As an artisan, Valentina has been the owner and designer of Nakei Boutique for over a year. Her shop is the place where she combines and gives shape to different passions that give life to her existence including Nature, photography, reading, writing, love for the past and much more! Nakei Boutique is not just an online store; Valentina likes to define it as a small window into her world and her soul.
She is a specialized classical archaeologist, and currently a PhD student in funerary archeology at the Department of her city. Valentina travels often, spending her time between her home and the island of Lipari, where she studies the materials of her research project.
How did you come up with the idea to combine the most delicate natural forms and jewelry?
Since I was little, I have always had a very deep bond with the surrounding nature. A bond that materialized in my first work as an archaeologist which fortunately often allows me to immerse myself in my beloved green.
As an adolescent, I remember studying the culture of Native Americans. I immediately felt very close to these people in a way that I cannot explain; precisely in reference to the respect and generation of different native tribes to the Nature that surrounded them.
My bond with nature also is deep rooted in my childhood: my mother's green thumb that led her to literally fill our house with flowers and plants, the walks in the woods in my father's mountain village, our house by the sea immersed between the mountains on one side, and the countryside on the other.
I collected everything I found along the way: every flower, every leaf that caught my attention ended up in the pages of my diaries and books. Over the years, these had become overcrowded and I searched the internet for a way to keep my entire collection.
In fact, I found a way to create a personal herbarium, but that wasn't enough!So I ended up on the pages of some Russian artists who made these jewels with epoxy resin and dried flowers. I literally fell in love with the possibility of giving all that Nature in pills a new life, and above all giving it my personal imprint. I decided to order the resin and the first frames, and after a long study and a long self-taught experimentation, I realized that I could no longer do without it and that I wanted to try to make a real job of it.
2. What is the main message of your brand? Its power is obvious, because you have so many admirers.
Every person who buys one of my creations must be able to recognize themselves in it. It is for this reason that I study the language of flowers and plants in depth and with passion.
Thanks to it, I can convey a world of memories and meanings in my creations, allowing people who choose a specific medallion to recognize themselves in the emotions it transmits, or making one customised with their specific requests, leaving me the task of translating them into a flowery message.The people on my page must be able to feel at home, where they are invited to re-establish contact with Nature and to take their mind off the crazy train that is our daily life for a moment.
My Brand is full of all this: visceral love and respect for Nature, the desire to get to know yourself better through it, a constant relationship with the customer who is never a number but immediately becomes a member of the pack, and then flowers, flowers and more flowers!
I don't know if we can even speak of "power". But certainly the love I receive every day from my Community repays me for everything, and confirms that perhaps even a small part of my message has reached its destination.
3. How many different techniques do you use to preserve the primordial freshness of inflorescences: glass, crystals, sculpting, terrariums, medallions, flowers frozen in liquid or glass... Do they come from tradition or modern technology?
Most of the flowers used in my creations are collected directly by me, and partly also cultivated; when I am asked for some of which I do not have immediate availability, instead, I search for them in an accurate and maniacal way!
All the flowers I work with are subjected to accurate drying procedures, which differ according to the flower and the type of drying I need to obtain; but today I mainly use natural methods, from the classic drying by pressing in books, to that by using sand as Nature itself teaches. The flowers are then incorporated into the transparent epoxy resin which, once catalysed, crystallizes its ephemeral beauty forever as in a timeless photographic shot.
If we wanted to seek a connection with the tradition of the past, as an archaeologist I cannot fail to refer to the use of amber in the production of jewelry such as those of ancient Egypt and then again of the ancient Greek and, especially, Roman tradition. In fact, amber is nothing more than a natural fossil resin capable of incorporating natural elements and, perhaps the most famous phenomenon, many varieties of insects. However, it should be noted that these are two very different materials. Compared to amber, in fact, epoxy resin not only has a total transparency that the first in nature cannot possess but, above all, it is not a natural product but a chemical one, and it must be handled with due care for one's own safety.
When I'm not using resin, on the other hand, I love to create small terrariums under mini-glass domes, composing micro worlds made of moss, mushrooms, dandelions and undergrowth flowers with care and patience, in order to bring, even in that way, a fragment of Nature always present.
4. The photos representing your jewelry remind us of magic and alchemy. Why is it so important for a modern person to keep a sense of wonder?
Photography is a very important element for me, because I have been deeply passionate about it since I was little. Behind every photo there is a lot of study and attention, and above all there is me in everything and for everything. Each photo must not only portray my creations, but also everything that represents me; it is possible to glimpse my beloved ancient books of botany, fiction and poetry accumulated over the years, or my collection of vintage objects belonging to my family for generations or maniacally collected around markets. Taking a photo allows me to escape from reality and immerse myself in a parallel world where a person like me, who is always inclined to hug trees or smell the scent of rain, can be herself without any fear or anxiety of never really feeling accepted in the world. A works that often would take us all the same, and that pushes us to forget the really important things.
I believe I am a person born in the wrong era, or simply too romantic and a dreamer .. so escape for me is equivalent to a lifeline. My hope is not to be the only one to feel this way, and that many other people like me, arriving in my world, no longer feeling alone!
5. Everything in your installation account is accompanied by a fascinating story. Where do they come from?
When I write a text to accompany my photos, I try to combine two things that are very important to me: the spontaneity that I hope always distinguishes my Brand (speaking, therefore, of me and my life, showing myself without filters or masks, the let me know and tell what I do, etc.) and the language and history of the flowers and plants I use in my creations. As I said, for me this language is fundamental, and every legend or story that I report is the result of a study carried out over time, and coming from multiple sources both on paper and from the web.
As an archaeologist and scholar, I can assure you that even this type of study never ends, and that every time I love to discover a little new information to add to my personal herbarium, from which I then transport everything to the Nakei Boutique page. Happy to share it all with great pleasure with my Community.
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