Kria Jewelry: Inspired by the Natural World
The Peak talks to Icelandic jeweler Johanna Methusalemsdottir and designer Paul Weil about their dynamic brand, the digital landscape, and the alchemy that turns bones and twigs into art.
Icelandic designer Johanna Methusalemsdottir began her jewelry brand, Kria, inspired by the natural world—it's cycles and orders, and the illusions they create. After emigrating to New York in the late 80s, the city's cultural dynamism, nightlife, art & fashion have all influenced her art. There's an intrinsic, otherworldly cool to her pieces inspired by seeds, stones, branches, and bones.
After moving to the Catskills in 2018, with husband/business partner, Paul Weil, and daughter Lola, the Kria brand has come full circle. Johanna's designs—sustainable jewelry made from reclaimed precious metals—are fashioned in a barn on property abutting the Catskill Forest Preserve. Sold around the world, Kria's necklaces, bracelets, earrings and rings can be spotted on red carpets, TV shows, film, and music videos. The designs have also won many awards in Iceland and beyond.
Now, Johanna and Paul have widened their scope and sphere with the Kria store, a beautiful space in the Galli Curci building on Main Street in Margaretville, New York. The store is home to Kria designs as well as curated one-of-a-kind objects sourced from Catskillian artists dedicated to works of sustainable creativity.
First, can you give us a brief background on how Kria came to be?
While pregnant with our youngest daughter, we went for an extended trip to visit Johanna’s family in Iceland and took many walks in the countryside and on the coast. On a black sand beach we found a full, intact skeleton of a “Kria” bird, the Icelandic name for the Arctic tern. They are one of the furthest migrating animals on Earth and they nest in Iceland.
After many years as a fashion stylist, Johanna had been considering revisiting her past experience working with jewelry. She thought that the shapes of the skeletal components were most intriguing on their own and that they were natural subjects for ritualization and adornment—the very essence of jewelry. The rest is history and has been a continuous conceptual evolution over the last 11 years.
How does creativity inform your business? How does business inform your creativity?
Creativity is what we are selling whether it be Johanna’s jewelry or the work of the artisans she surrounds it with—these are Johanna’s domains as designer and shop curator. The atmosphere and context that the retail and online stores create are extensions of Johanna’s aesthetic. Her aesthetic is the brand. And it is what clients respond to. But the atmosphere is not static, and the brand and the spaces it occupies cannot be either. Dynamism is important to our creativity and business.
Small omni-channel retail businesses like ours require constant adaptation and adjustment. It doesn’t necessarily mean the designer needs to compromise artistically, but rather they must consider how designs translate for the online versus retail experience. If you create unique things which are handmade, hand-dyed or one-of-a-kind, it may be best to feature those in the retail store where people can engage with them and the space. If it’s a good experience, they’re likely to suggest the brand to others who might be able to enjoy it from afar, online.
How has your website and online presence evolved over time? And how has that transformed your work?
Kria has evolved online as the brand has grown in scope. Before opening our retail location in the Galli-Curci Theater in Margaretville, in 2019, the business was comprised of very modest online sales, some direct sales to clients, and wholesale orders for stockists domestically and internationally, but mainly in Iceland.
Once the retail store opened, the dynamic changed quickly. Clients not able to come to the new store wanted to experience it online as best they could and we wanted to provide the opportunity. We invested in building-out our second structure at home into the Kria studio; we invested in a photography setup to elevate our imagery; and, we began to incorporate how and where we work and live into our online presence. The process continues and has us collaborating as partners, both working solely for the brand now.
Did Covid-19 change anything for you in terms of your business? Did/does your digital presence make up for it in any way?
I imagine this crisis has changed so much for just about everyone, including us, but it has also helped us focus even more on the business and our creativity and how to sustain both for the long-term. The immediate was an acceleration of developing and expanding our online store and the marketing of it as it was the only retail channel. We had other commercial clients that I provided art direction, post-production and design work for, but they went away which has allowed me to put all of my energy into our business. By the time any came back, we were seeing the return on our investment and enjoying working with each other enough to continue. It was an unexpected silver lining and gave us confidence.
Do you have any frustrations, worries, or paranoia about conducting business - or life - online?
We feel fortunate to have gotten to this point as a business considering the circumstances, and we have moved past anxiety to feeling more confident in the decisions we have made personally and professionally. We feel gratitude toward the owners of the Galli-Curci Theater for giving us the opportunity to open the store in such a unique space and for the other businesses in our community for braving these times while continuing to strive to grow. We miss our friends and family like everyone else but appreciate them more as a result. We feel eager for life to come back and try to create an environment in our store that is inclusive and hopefully gives people a sense of normality and community.
What are your goals, aspirations, or hopes for your digital presence?
To continue to provide an intriguing experience and to be transparent about our process, who we are, and what we feature so that people can feel confident that what they are buying is made with consideration and respect for the people involved in making it and the environment they make it in.
In your personal life or professional life, what do you enjoy/appreciate most about the web?
The opportunity to learn, discover and accomplish. It is a resource. There’s plenty to be inspired by, but it’s important to be sure to trust your own creativity and vision.
For more on Kria, visit kriajewelry.com.