“Made, carved, and told by Jade Boutilier”
Inspired by Michelangelo’s “unfinished” statues -where partial carvings meld with raw rock- artist, designer, and creator Jade Boutilier of Captve Jewelry infuses each ring, cuff, and pedant with the same concept of colliding the organic with the man made. Based in Montreal, Canada Jade Boutilier begins each Captve piece as a wax sculpture.
“Though many believe Michelangelo’s work was never finished, Jade draws on this mix of raw form and precision to create conversations around material and intention. Reminiscent of the way in which Michelangelo stripped back marble to reveal figures within, Jade releases the stories she carves from wax to emerge each new collection.” ∼ Captve
Once the carving of the wax is compete, the sculpture is then cast in metal- silver, bronze, and gold -where it becomes wearable art. Polished to a reflective shine and placed on minimalistic bands and chains, emphasis is put on the individual sculpted centerpieces. Skulls, hands, broken columns…each little wax sculpture mold is re-sculpted before every casting, so no one piece is exactly alike.
Captve’s conceptual wearable art pieces are created as narrative series; such as the “Manus” series, where sculpted metal hands tell the story of love and anxiety while decorating your fingers and ears. The collection “Ruin” features jewelry that seems partly destroyed, partly dissolved…. this collection was created to whisper the tale of the never ending cycle of building and decay. Artist Jade makes her collections as a single ongoing story; one series of jewelry pieces is the following chapter of the previous series. Simple but powerful, Captve’s unique jewelry has a lot to tell. What will the next chapter reveal?
We end with the big question: So where is the “i” in Captve? You can find the missing “i” stamped on each completed work of jewelry. For the curious, videos on how wax becomes jewelry and more behind-the-scenes with Captve can be found on Instagram.
