Honour Your Imagination
Meet Holly Eva Gray…
She was named after a stretch of Hawaiian sand. "By my Dad, with my mum’s approval," says Holly Eva Gay, who credits her creative spirit to her nature-loving father and craft-loving mother, whose free-spirited decision to name their middle (of five) children after the beautiful Hale’iwa beach has bode well in her artistic pursuits.
"Dad thought it would be nice to be named after a beautiful beach, but he did change the spelling to Holly Eva," she explains. "My Dad was always high on nature and loved the beach and my mum was always sewing, making us clothes.
"I figure I’m a mix of Mum and Dad put together — I love, love, love the beach, so I am driven by it to create styles that have all the happiness and emotions that the beach offers me."
Holly Eva’s designs are brightly coloured, one-of-a-kind statement pieces constructed largely of recycled textiles and beads. "I find my supplies at op shops and collect jewellery that friends no longer want," says Holly Eva. "My mother-in-law is an experienced crafter and she is constantly giving me old craft objects that date back to the ’80s — they are fabulous! And I go to garage sales, markets and dumps looking for fabrics — I’m unafraid to go looking in these places because this is where the magic happens for me and
I feel so thrilled to find and create something from someone else’s trash.
"Depending on the design, my necklaces normally take a full day to create. I don’t plan them too much; I just allow the feelings to happen," she says. "If I make a mistake or I don’t like what I have just placed on a design, I just change it. There are no rules with me — only freedom. I escape reality and honour the imagination."
You can find Holly Eva designs on Facebook, Etsy (www.etsy.com/shop/hollyeva) and in-store at Elvis for Cleo, Newtown NSW and AShiki in Milton NSW. Holly also has a blog at http://hollyevagay.blogspot.com
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