Wear A Bendy Bow
Deborah Stotzky is an acupuncturist, bicyclist, and yogi. Erwin List is a sculptor, aspiring Sotapanna, and jewelry-maker. Put them together and you get a marriage and a Yoga Jewels, which currently sells twenty individual designs for bracelets, necklaces, and earrings inspired by yoga poses. Less than a year old, Yoga Jewels has eight unique amulets. Each is about ¾ of an inch long and displays a female figure in a pose: Bendy Bow, Courageous Crow, Windless Tree, etc. Most are cast in sterling silver and hang on silver chains or leather bands and some include birthstones.
Erwin makes the tiny figures out of small bits of wax into the poses into poses that he sees Deborah doing their Chelsea apartment. He then casts the wax and burns it out — the lost wax process. His figures are an almost paradoxical combination of simplified forms and attention to detail. Deborah points to the gluts on one of the Determined Dancers. “I just love the butt,” she laughs. “So I always wear it butt facing out.”
Deborah and Erwin have a giggly, childlike glow, an attitude which shines through in their jewelry. She adds that people wear it to help empower them, open their hearts, and remember their goals. She hopes to wear her Skillful Scorpion necklace until she can live up to its name. Well, she and Erwin may be there already.
Emma Sartwell