Julie Raasch

Jewelry & Photography
aistheta
aisthetajewelry.com
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instagram.com/aisthetajewelry

Hoverfly Studio
hoverflystudio.com
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instagram.com/julraasch

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Julie Raasch is a jewelry artist and photographer who is immersed in the natural world. She has always been a creative person, loving art and making since she was a child. Julie studied anthropology and biology in college, but after graduation, she realized she enjoyed creating the covers and making the graphics and diagrams for the papers she turned in more than writing them. With that in mind, she returned to school to study graphic design. While working as a designer, she began making jewelry for herself as a form of self-expression. She started making rosary-style chains to combine with and embellish repurposed vintage jewelry. She soon found she enjoyed making them and couldn’t possibly wear (or gift) everything she made, so she opened an Etsy shop in 2008. While working as a designer/artist at UW-Madison, she took her first metalsmithing class. The 8-week course set her on a path to working with metal. After exploring traditional metal techniques, Julie started to slowly build a home studio. She started with only a few basics and, therefore, was limited to what she could make. These limitations led to the exploration and discovery of a fairly young form of metalsmithing…fold-forming! Julie now combines her love of nature and her love for fold-forming to create nature-inspired handcrafted jewelry.

Julie has a passion for jewelry and working with metal. As a metalsmith she enjoys working with copper, sometimes silver and brass. Much of her jewelry starts as a flat piece of metal and is created using a technique known as fold-forming. It is a technique in which the metal is annealed (heated) repeatedly while folding, unfolding, forging, and shaping the metal. Etching and traditional metalsmith techniques are often combined with the folding of the metal. Stones, beads, found objects or hand-made beaded chains are sometimes included. Each piece of handcrafted jewelry is a small sculptural piece of nature-inspired wearable art that celebrates the person who wears it.

Julie always possessed a love for photography, but did not really start taking photos until she was given a point-and-shoot film camera as a college graduation gift. She took it on a trip through Europe to capture her travels. When she returned, the camera was mostly used to memorialize family gatherings and outings with friends. Julie purchased her first SLR film camera when she was studying graphic design. As part of her training, she was required to take two photography classes. The first taught her how to use the camera and control for different settings. The second class taught her how to take product photos. Aside from those two classes, Julie is mostly self-taught. While she used her newfound skills to take photos of nature, Julie’s passion and understanding of photography did not truly bloom until she acquired her first digital camera. After that, she learned and continues to learn by experimenting.

Julie’s love of nature can also be seen in her photographs that capture the world around her. She is an observer of nature, color, and how light plays in the environment, how it silhouettes, highlights, and most importantly, brings out color where it was once hidden by darkness. Julie likes to study and observe nature and enjoys looking closely, taking it apart, and examining individual items. She gets down on the ground and looks at things from a different angle. Julie wants to find the best perspective to see how the light interacts. From above, below, or at eye level? The goal is to capture nature and inspire people to enjoy and celebrate it.

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