Meet the Designer: Rebecca Perea-Kane of Thicket

New to our shop is Thicket. Rebecca Perea-Kane's delicate line is inspired by natural, found objects and made from recycled fine metals. We caught up with Rebecca to learn more about the designer behind one of our newest brands.

How did you get started making jewelry?

I started my career in design working with textiles but found my way to jewelry soon after. I worked as a studio assistant in Brooklyn, then did production work in Paris, and then worked as a production manager in Charlottesville, Virginia before starting my own line in 2014.

What’s your favorite part about being a jewelry designer?

I love the combination of elemental techniques (fire! hammers!) on such a tiny, tiny scale. Before design I was in a creative writing MFA program for poetry. I think there’s a lot of overlap in the process: the elevation of detail, the noticing that you have to engage and persist in, the conviction that a made thing can somehow help us wayfind through the experience of being a human. I sometimes wonder about the usefulness of spending my days making things. The world already has so many things. But the earliest jewelry dates back about one hundred thousand years. That’s steadying: there is something essential to something that has been going on so long.

Do you have a favorite piece that you have made?

I have a special love for the thorn pieces I make. There is something so compelling about flowers that take care of themselves.

Do you have a favorite metal or stone that you prefer to work with?

With Thicket I work in recycled fine metal: sterling silver and 14k gold. I love working with recycled metals because I feel like it lends even more layers of memory into pieces - metal swirled into metal and all of it containing so many stories and past forms.

Do trends in the industry affect the way you design a new collection?

I want to create jewelry that is effortless to wear so I err on the side of minimal but I don’t pay too much heed to trends. I think what endures tends to be simple.  With Thicket I strive to capture the feeling of slipping a smooth stone into a pocket - our urge to carry the world with us in tiny pieces of landscape. To me that feeling goes to something human - something beyond the ebb and flow of styles.

What’s your favorite piece of jewelry from your own personal collection?

I have a very simple gold chain my father gave me - I think when I was in college but it wasn’t for any particular occasion. He died when I was 25 and I think of him when I wear it. I am perpetually humbled by the making of jewelry because I think jewelry - more than any other accessory or type of apparel - gets imbued with so much meaning. Pieces in my own collection are tied so closely to specific people, places, certain periods of my life. They’re like songs in the way that a piece worn constantly for a span of time gets infused with that moment.