My name is Vanja Mijač and I was born on January 11, 1978, in Kakanj, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In 2001 I graduated from the Art Academy in Široki Brijeg, Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the class of professor Stipe Sikirica, where I acquired the title Art-Academy Graduate Sculptor and the Teacher of Art.
After graduation I returned to my present home, the island of Hvar, where I have been living and working on my pieces of artistic jewellery ever since.

Pieces of sculptress' mind

Considering the fact that I stem from an artistic family involved in jewellery, a logical step was connecting my family's tradition to my own knowledge and skills. It was initially a game – I took a piece of sea shell and a piece of string and bound it with a piece of stone into the form of a ring, bracelet, pendant… and that was how the fairy tale started. My main working materials were silver and semi-precious stones. However, with time, my need for adventure and creative expression moved the boundaries. This is the reason why I now combine almost incompatible materials. Moreover, the latter has become my main preoccupation.
Brass, leather, fabric, glass, computer chips, sea shell, a pearl, semi-precious stones… and those are only a few materials I use.
In the end it all transformed into redesigning and recycling of used, shattered and discarded, old filigreed pieces of silver or the leftovers of already used leather.
In the world of today, when industrialisation practically swept away hand-made art, I am playing and creating my little wearable sculptures, offering a fresh view of the carefully selected fragments of the days of yore.

 

Unique Vibrations

After the completion of Art Academy in Široki Brijeg, a rich aura of postmodernism gave the opportunity to Vanja Mijač to direct the development of her sophisticated talent towards smaller forms, especially artistic jewellery which, in an amazing way, etherised her poetic nature and close connection to dreams, colours and exciting solutions. Jewellery is a personality extension to Vanja. Every designed item reflects both the cultural heritage of her surrounding environment and the decorative quality of the compositions, as well as the strength of inventiveness in forming specific constructions. At first glance, this hand-made jewellery reveals the author’s preoccupation with ornaments by using old buckles or polished shells from Australia. By no means can this be compared to the mere stringing up of Fimo clay, beads or miniature crystals. In this case, the sculptor’s sensitivity has manifested itself in the careful choices of precious and semi-precious stones, silver elements and strings, leather, glass and other materials. By means of asymmetric necklaces, bracelets, earrings and rings, the artist not infrequently emphasizes the distinctiveness of a particular material and colour. She also stresses the importance of artistic forming of so-called “beautiful chaos”, which does not restrain itself from unusual forms, experiments or temperamental overtone. Jewellery made by Vanja Mijač is neither self-important nor obtrusive, but pure and attractive, with the touch of subtle sculptor’s hand. Understandably, she designed her works of art to various types and generations of women, suggesting not only their glamorous nights out, but also their daily individual dazzling appearance. Therefore, it is not surprising that numerous pieces of Vanja’s unique jewellery meet enthusiasm from numerous admirers of the young artist, who is not only in close touch with the days of yore, but also with the days to come. Vanja is, for sure, a dreamer who, by means of materialised perceptiveness, does not turn back neither on our, nor on her own dreams.

 

Tonći Šitin, PhD