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Text By Cathy Gordon
“We’re never sure what month it is,” says founder John Wind of Maximal Art,
known for its whimsical, holiday-themed jewelry. “We work on pieces for every
holiday simultaneously—every day.”
The Maximal Art staff has maximum fun
inside their suburban Philadelphia studio, turning John’s eclectic vision into
collages of wearable art. Some 1,000 shops worldwide carry the collection.
While a student at the Slade School of Art in London during the early 1980s,
John adorned himself with huge brooches he designed from flea-market finds. At 6
feet 6 inches tall, he seldom went unnoticed. Strangers would stop him on the
street, wanting to know where he got his jewelry. “My work was more sculpture
than jewelry. They’d never seen anything like it.”
He began selling his wares
at the London store Hyper Hyper. Confidence buoyed, he approached a higher-end
shop. “The manager liked my designs, but wanted me to improve the jewelry’s
quality.”
John returned weeks later, his brooches no longer set in fragile
clay, but resin. His chunky creations became a hit, featured during London
Fashion Week and in the pages of The London Times and British Vogue. At 23, he
had arrived.
Our jewelry is inspired by the past, but with a modern spin, “ John says. (a) A skeleton key and witch silhouette dangle from faceted glass beads.
(b) Maximal Art’s logo by graphic designer Nick Mitchell reflects the
company’s mix of vintage and modern. (c) “Seasonal pieces, like this
turkey brooch, always please our customers.”
(d) John and his staff piece together keepsake jewelry by hand in his
suburban Philadelphia studio. (e) Boring accessories, nevermore! A
raven wears a bracelet and necklace from the Halloween Silhouette Collection.
(f) A photocopied bit of a vintage postcard provides leaf imagery
inside an Autumn Harvest Collection brooch.
Originally published in the October/November 2007 issue
A Man for All Seasons page
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