Masani Wearable Sculptures

Artists use their gifts to interpret how they feel internally. It could be dream variations of melodic intervals and poetry synthesized into song formats. It could be dramatic colors splashed on canvas in oils and acrylics translating thoughts through paintings. Designer, Masani Mulraine blends her lessons of life with fresh corals and sleek metals of silver, copper and bronze to create her impeccable collection of wearable sculptures.

Known as the hottest jewelery designer in Brooklyn, Masani interprets her feelings by infusing the complexity of a minimalist complex in her art. Her jewelery is a reflection of the Universe and a respect of life as an art to the earth for its natural materials.

The understanding of the universe is interpreted through Masani's pieces. Her collection is a higher understanding of life and love. It is an elevation to a state of pure consciousness. Worn by artists such as Erykah Badu and Meshell Ndegeocello, Masani explains that her line is not for everybody.

"Most of my clients are creative performing artists that have a different sort of energy," she says.

The energy that Masani is speaking of is something that is hard to describe because it is a spiritual and emotional connection to life that can not be contrived or captured by the written word. It is an energy developed from understanding the Universe as it is.

Our creator gives each of us different tasks to accomplish through attributes in which we call gifts or talents. We exist by embracing our gifts from him. In fulfilling our individual purpose we continue the rotation of the circle of life, understanding that each of us is vital to the evolvement of the universe. This is the knowledge that Masani shares.

"I am me", she says. "I am evolving and my work is a reflection of my evolution. Its my story that other people can learn from. You are you. You do what you love to do and what you came to do and you are doing it like no one can because that is your purpose. It's God given. We are given different purposes and once each person understands their own sense of purpose and embraces that then they become one with themselves and one with the universe. We can exist in tranquility because there is an agreement that all creation has equal value. We're all connected in mind body and spirit just like the stars. One star doesn't try to outshine the other in the sky because each star has its own purpose and position. This is an importance assigned by God."

It is that thinking that has allowed Masani to adopt a minimalist concept for her line and life as well. A minimalist concept could mean different things for each of us. It could be a switch from couture to jeans and a white tee. It could be an exchange of excessiveness to simplicity. Masani attributes a minimalist concept to that of an onion.

"Once you strip all the illusion of reality you get to the core. To me my collection gives birth to a concept in the tangible world. My art means that people are wearing a sculpture."

Masani's most recent collection is the Silver Collection. It is a kaleidoscope of feelings and attributes handcrafted into wearable sculptures of necklaces, bracelets,rings and earrings. The collection contains pieces that Masani named and that I further defined.

The Acceptance of happiness necklace: a beautiful flower-shaped charm with the word happy in-scripted in the center of the bulb. It is a reminder that happiness is always with us.
The Acceptance of love harmony strength: a trio of rings reminiscent of the Egyptian era that reads: love: harmony: strength. Love is the absence of intentional hurt, continuous acceptance and everlasting care. Harmony is an equilibrium of tranquility . Strength is the ability to be strong and unmoved under harsh or all circumstances; to simply be still.
The Life necklace: the universal acceptance of always choosing life.
The Universal acceptance of courage, faith and life necklace: The courage to have faith gives rejuvenation to life.
The Four corners of the universe: a rectangular shaped necklace outlining the four corners of the universe. Attached to the bottom is a circular charm that reads love. The geometric translation of that is once you have found real love you can travel to every corner of the universe and no matter where you go, what you do and what anybody else does you will always be centered by the love that only you and that person share.

The Silver Collection is an amazing example of how Masani is able to utilize and transform metal into outstanding jewelery by giving it meaning. She credits this to her understanding of metal to its core.

"There is a language that is tied with metal. That' s why I like metal because people find metal to be so hard and so abrasive but metal can bend once you put heat to it. Its an illusion as far as it being hard. If you dig deep down inside of the core the metal is very soft. It yields depending on what you do to it. What you do to it is also dependent on who and where you are in your life. If you are hard the metal will not yield to you. Once you become one with the metal depending on your growth and evolution then the metal will be soft. Right now I'm at peace. I'm soft so the metal as my art gives because I give."

Creating soft sculptures by "intermixing her Afro-Caribbean aesthetics with geometric sequences" comes natural for the Pratt Institute graduate. Even so this wasn't always the case for the designer who passed up a scholarship at the posh Parsons School of Designs in Manhattan.

"I decided to go to Pratt because at the time I was partying, drinking and hanging out so I would not have focused in the city. I liked Brooklyn because Brooklyn embraced me. Its an array of different people and it has culture. I liked the African Festivals, the Caribbean day parades and all the different cultural things their. Brooklyn was also quieter and it centered me. It was different for me because I grew up in the Bronx."

Being raised in the Bronx, Masani's childhood can be described with adjectives that allude to pain and being disadvantaged but the designer now rejects all those labels.

"I never ask why. Why did this happen to me. Why did that happen. There are things in our life that we have no control over. The bottom line is we're here to learn from our obstacles and our past. Its up to us to not define ourselves from those things. I don't take my past and things that happened to me and attach that to who I am now. I don't judge myself in that way and I don't judge people because judging is buying into pre-conceived notions that are not my own. I try to be in the moment, breathe and live in the now."

It is important to note that Masani's conviction is a thought process that she acquired over the years through experience and time. When she was younger she does admit to being entertained by certain behavior that was not conducive to her survival. Conflicted by society's concept of who she was supposed to be as opposed to who she was created an internal struggle that almost drove her to suicide.

"I was looking for something outside of myself. I was buying into society's labels and concepts and I was measuring myself by those standards and focusing so much on the physical. That's what happens to people in society. We're always looking for validation of who we are from outside sources. We're always searching for the next plateau, the next destination and once we reach the mountain top we ask, this is it? We can't be fulfilled at that point because we were searching for something on the outside that was already inside of us. Now I identify myself as more then what you see in the physical. I have a higher understanding of human nature in my head. I am a Buddhist so my concept is very different from people who buy into the physical being their identity."

Condensing the amount of time that we focus on the physical is a beautiful elevating experience. Accepting the concept that every individual is the thread of connection that keeps the circle of life evolving allows us to look at the world and all creation in a different light. Masani's evolution, as reflected in her sculptures is an understanding of that and more. It is rejecting those things that do not give light to positive energy and adopting things that do. It is the ability to completely ignore all things produced out of negativity. She explains that those things that are not manifested in light are birthed from the ego.

"The ego lives in all of us but we don't have to foster it," she exclaims. "It's a very dangerous thing because it's never ever satisfied. It's like an incredible virus that enters its host so massively that it is bent on killing everything around it just to exist in us. It's a virus that is so determined on winning and being perceived as "better then" that it will kill the source of energy that keeps it alive and kill itself in the process. You're not even willing to save yourself by saving your host, now that's deep."

The ego is what causes confusion because it is a rejection of what the Creator conceived. This causes an imbalance in the universe. When we look at events in the news and look around us, we are able to see that there is a common denominator in every chaotic situation and that is hate and anger. Hate produces conflict which produces war. War produces orphans and poverty which then produce crime. Everybody is affected because we are all connected. It is a very serious thing; the ego. We lose the ability to see a God within everything. There is too much hatred and too little love. Too much conflict and too little forgiveness, maturity and growth. Growth is the ability for us to become better people then we were yesterday. The resignation of pure stupidity and intentional ignorance allows us to be more focused on important issues that affect all creation.

"I myself am in a state of growth," begins Masani. "If someone is hateful and angry I embrace them with compassion and understanding. The bottom line is that they don't feel loved and they are not happy. They need a hug. For us to come back at them the same way doesn't make us better. I am on a journey and am here to touch and do what I came to do. Whatever someone else thinks of me or says that is their own journey that their participating in. In life we have choices. We don't have to participate in everybody's journey. My focus is to fulfill my purpose so I can keep the rotation (of life) going. I believe time here is different from the time when you are enlightened. As you receive information, you move forward. We're always living in the past. Thinking about what happened before or yesterday. Holding on and waiting for the right situation. The right time to heal is now. We have to be awakened in order to balance out the planet. The bottom line is if you just have compassion you could change the world."