Heidi Ansley (glass artist) and Marize van der Westhuizen (jeweller)
Art glass meets sterling silver
The vibrant colour, translucency and endless possibilities of creating with glass have always excited me. I have been playing and working with glass ever since I fell in love with this medium on a trip to Murano in 1999. Fusing my own range of glass was birthed during lockdown, when I had time to play and develop some of my creative ideas into products.
I loved what emerged from the kiln so much that I wanted to wear my art…making jewellery was the natural next step.
Then the challenge started finding a jeweller to work with …
There were many mass produced bails and fittings available. I did not want that. Jewellers I spoke to encouraged me to work in molds to standardise my range. I did not want that. I made a wish list, prayed and let it go…
These are the words I jotted down in my journal:
Unique
Individually made
Focus on detail
Freehand
High quality
Colourful
100% sterling silver
No mass producing
Small batch
Never boring
No two ever exactly the same
Personal
Fun
Ever evolving
Functional
Personal
I almost gave up on my dream, when Marize entered the story…fiery redhead tennis coach with a silver side hustle, endless creativity, practicality and youthful energy. Our paths crossed by design at an art market, when I happened to enter a competition Marize ran and won 3 pairs of her beautiful silver earrings. The rest is proverbial history. We work so well together. Marize lovingly encapsulates our beautiful glass nuggets in her handmade silver fittings. Her other gifts of organizing, photography, running our social media and keeping me on track when my creative mind wanders, have contributed to our business developing and blossoming into where we are currently. We are excited about Vro.lik’s future.