Hi! I’m Anna, jewelry artist and metalsmith, but if you’d ask me a couple of years ago, the answer would be totally different…
I was born in Lithuania, in 1986. Being jewish, my parents decided to go visit our relatives in Israel. A little drive in the desert and a few Hebrew songs later, and my dad, with tears in his eyes, was saying his children should be raised in Israel. And so I find myself at the age of four, on an airplane towards the unknown.
At the beginning I did not speak the language, and obviously, didn’t have a lot of friends. So I resulted to making bead jewelry. The jewelry wasn’t great, but little did I know, that this experience will end up shaping my life.
Years passed, I made friends, forgot about the beads and finished high school. Like every Israeli, it was time to go to the army. I was chosen to serve as a developer in the biggest technological unit in the IDF, a part of the Israeli intelligence. After four years of service, I found a great job in the world known Israeli tech scene and felt my life was set.
A few years had passed, and the excitement of the high salary has weakened. I started feeling that something was missing, I realized that I wasn’t feeling fulfilled with what I was doing. After months of contemplating, I left my job and decided to finally take that big trip that most Israelis take after finishing their army service. My destination of choice was Latin America. And so I said goodbye to my family and friends and went traveling for a whole year by myself.
I met so many great people on the way, and made friends for life. But one of them is actually responsible for who I am today. Ricardo, an amazingly talented Argentinian goldsmith and a great friend.
Ricardo invited me to see his work. The second he started explaining his process, I suddenly felt a familiar feeling. It was that same excitement I felt while making bead jewelry as a lonely four year old in a new country.
Next thing I knew, I was taking a job with Ricardo to learn everything I could. I continued to taking metal classes in almost every city I visited.
And the rest is history…
