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Our Mother,
Claudia Jean
The Original
"Iconic Woman"
and Inspiration
for our line of jewelry
the
designers
Two
Sisters. A Need for a Creative Outlet. A
Very Stylish Mama. Big,
Big Dreams. All of these key
elements thrown together was what helped
us to create
iram-inal designs.
iram-inal was started as a business in
late 2006 by designers and sisters, Mari
("iram") and Lani ("inal")
Davis, after we both found a need for a
creative outlet to our daytime 9-to-5 jobs.
For
us, creating a piece of jewelry is an
organic process that starts with the
materials we use: From rough-cut
natural stones, to refined faceted gems
that sparkle in the light, to the fine
grain in recycled and repurposed wood,
we are inspired by the material
itself to create something big, bold
and beautiful from something so small
and individual when by
itself.
Both self-taught Artists we
initially began making jewelry to create
an artistic filter in our busy,
business-professional lives (with
degrees in biology and law). For
each seasonal collection, we
evenly divide the creative process,
jointly devising the concept of a
design, then go forth to make an equal
amount of earrings, bracelets, cuffs and
necklaces for each collection.
Our inspiration? Of course our
wonderful mother (who, pictured above,
has always had a penchant for
large jewelry),
but also our grandmothers, aunts,
mentors and friends: The strong,
beautiful women influences who taught us
in our youth, and guide us in our adult years.
As we have been surrounded by such
wonderful women our entire lives, we are
both vast believers that any "iconic
woman" can make a statement in any
way she chooses - whether it be
through her words, her dress, or
expressing herself through a beautiful
piece of jewelry to make an
individualistic statement.
While we always ensure that we
keep up with the current trends in
jewelry, our focus is on creating
timeless, big, bold
statement-making pieces that not only speak
to the individual wearer, but also
screams to the masses - without words -
that the wearer is "Iconic."
The designs we create are inspired from
all cultures of the world, but are
mainly Afrocentric in nature. As
strong women, we look back to the large
cuffs bracelets, woven necklaces, and
breastplates worn by our ancestors as
inspiration, and try our best to
continue the tradition of those styles,
but with a modernized twist and flair.
Although we stylistically construct a
wide variety of jewelry pieces, our
specialty lies in our beautiful woven
necklaces and cuff, made from flexible
wire,
shell, repurposes/recycled wood or semiprecious stone, and
.925 sterling silver, plated and
gold-filled findings.
The sisters currently make jewelry in
their home studios in St. Louis, Missouri, and
Atlanta, Georgia, and sell in boutiques
and galleries across the country.
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