So excited to be featured in the Winter 2016 Michigan Alumnus magazine's article, The Michigan Closet. Below is the section about Rebecca's work, check out the entire article here. Written by Jenn McKee, photo by Remy Roman.
SCULPTING WITH STONES
Instead of making it big, artist Rebecca Zemans, ’03, makes it small—in the form of rings, pendants, brooches, bracelets, and more. To her, the pieces are “small sculptures."
Zemans first experimented with jewelry while studying metalsmithing and cultural anthropology at U-M. But by her senior year, she had ventured into large-scale sculptures. But four years after graduating, when she dis- covered her artistic home in Chicago’s Lillstreet Arts Center, her interest shifted. The center had a jewelry facility, making her think, “Why don’t I bring my work down to the scale where I started?” The following year, she launched her online business, Rebecca Zemans: Sculptural Designs in Jewelry.
Zemans’ line is now a range of wedding and engagement rings, as well as pieces she creates from customers’ old jewelry, repurposing the metals and stones into new designs. The work makes her feel like she has finally married her two fields of study at U-M.
“There’s a form of a wedding ceremony in every culture, and as a metalsmith, by making rings, you are part of that human ritual. And with the legality of gay marriage, there’s a whole other level of intimacy, designing for two men or for two women,” she says. “It’s fun to be able to honor everyone’s beliefs and ways of life.