"My piece 'Wired' represents an expression of my feelings towards global issues."
Svetlana Kossman is a Russian beading artist based in the USA. She became interested in this craft in 2014, when her husband showed her and her son a beading technique he had learnt as a child in a summer camp. Experimenting with beads led to her developing her unique style.
Kossman owns a hand-made jewellery business and holds online seminars on beading.
‘Wired’, a critique to problematic human behaviour, was the piece that earned her second place in the Open Fashion Category of the 2019 Hand & Lock Prize.
Kossman produced a cropped vest with symbols alluding to climate crisis, a 3D embroidered heart being the focal point. Other details included a glow-in-the-dark skull, honeycomb shapes and plumbing tubes.
‘Empty honeycombs show that bees are dead. Plumbing tubes on the shoulders […] represent a sewer system and polluted waters’ she stated.
Materials such as leather, coins, sequin waste and plumbing washers were used in the production of the dramatic piece, with Kossman’s speciality beading being the main technique.
You can see more of her work here.
