One Day : Kathryne Radburn - Jewellery maker
Location : Montreal, Canada
Profession / passion : Artist Jeweller
Website : www.ryhn.ca
Instagram : @ryhnjewellery
One Day is an ongoing project sparked by the Covid-19. In the days of isolation we would like to focus on what we do best; bringing people together. Read more about the project here.
We will be posting one new day of someones life every day until we run out of contributors. See our instagram stories to experience these peoples One Day in action.
A text, song or film that everyone should experience :
We Have Always Been Here, a queer muslim memoir by Samra Habib.
What is the story behind your profession/ passion?
About five years ago I decided to go back to school to learn metalsmithing. I would turn our spare room into my studio, and make jewellery collections under the name RYHN, a partial anagram/nickname for Kathryne (Kate/RYHN).
RYHN is texture-rich jewellery inspired by expansive landscapes. During my travels to the Bay of Fundy, Cape Breton and Newfoundland on the East Coast, I developed the basis of my art practice as I found my jewellery work transformed by my emotional and physical connection to the landscape. My interest lies in these experiences of the landscape, nostalgia filled, both real and imagined, using cast textures as an analog for this raw, romanticized emotion.
How do you want people to react to your work / passion?
My work is bespoke and/or made-to-order. I make my pieces by hand, with intention, and each piece is meant to improve with age. I don't follow fashion cycles, rush to move stock, discount it and start again...it might be how things used to work, but I prefer a slower rhythm. My pieces are inspired by landscapes, my connection to the environment, the natural world, and I'm always reevaluating how my work can move forward, be inspired, and grow in a sustainable way considering it's place in a greater context. I would hope to reach people who appreciate these same things or cause them to think in a new way.
How has the current situation affected how you work?
I continue to work from my home studio. I no longer have in person contact with my suppliers and I am staying home. However I'm fabricating pieces using the casts, wire and sheet metal I currently have in the studio. Exploring how to create something new from the familiar.
When was the last time you learned something new and what was it?
I was moonlighting as a paper maker at the start of the year, at Papeterie St-Armand, where many fine artists in Canada and the United States source their paper materials. I'm fascinated by hand made paper and paper casting methods, and wish to explore the connections between paper and metal, their casting process, their capacity for longevity and for being recycled, used as tools of expression over and over. Investigating how we might take into consideration the possible previous, and even future lives and uses of these raw materials is something I hope to incorporate in my practice. Hopefully I will get a chance to continue, perhaps later this year.
Define what beauty means to you.
I find beauty is in the details that shape our experiences. It shifts with our perspective, our attention...The look of sunlight and wind rippling on the surface of water, the quiet decay of a flower, how the repetition of an ambient sound changes with each reiteration. That sort of thing.
Describe a smell that brings back memories to you.
I searched diligently for a new scent, for years. While on vacation last summer with my partner, shortly after finding a new perfume that I love made by local perfumery Lvnea, we were heading to the ocean, walking through a forest which turned into sand dunes, and which led us to the beach. As we were walking, the trees, the sand and the salt in the air ...it all smelled so similar, so much like my perfume. Now the memory of those days by the ocean, the picnic on the beach, the walk through the forest, the two are the same in my mind. Everyday I apply my perfume, I am drawn back to those blissful summer days.
What is the most inspiring text you read recently?
Humans are not the virus. Indigenous people have shown that it is possible to live in balance with nature. Colonialism and extraction for profit, those are the virus. - Lakota People's Law Project
What traits do you treasure in other people?
Generosity, gratitude and compassion.
Who do you miss?
My younger cousin Austin, who passed away just over a year and a half ago.
Have you actively chosen to live in the city/town you live in?
I moved to Montreal almost 16 years ago now, and though there are many cities where I wish I could have lived, or would wish to live in (Marseille, Tokyo, Seoul, Holualoa, to name a few.) I'm grateful to have such a comfortable apartment in which I've lived for many of those 16 years, and to fall in love with my city over and again.
If you were forced to sit still for one month straight without pursuing your current profession, how would you spend your time?
Am I on a beach in the Maritimes? I could easily comb the sands for shells and pebbles for a month's time, photographing and cataloging, letting the tides wash it all away and start again the next day.
Lastly, how do you wish to see this current situation have a positive impact on our lives?
I wish for more balance; to see more generosity from those who have too much to those who don't have enough. I also hope this interruption of our chaotic day-to-day will shine awareness on the ways we can change our behaviours to preserve the land and our environment.