There is no doubt that the 2020 pandemic changed the perspective of our lives, our thoughts and feelings and for artists was a great opportunity to isolate from the outer world and rethink their art.

In my country the first lockdown began in March 2020. In Greece, during March we see the first signs of Spring, nature gets wild, sun is extra bright and sky blue and clear. Some of us were lucky enough to live in beautiful places where you could find a forest near your house and enjoy the beauty of nature and all stages of its rebirth. During that time I had the opportunity to observe nature and look at details.

By the second phase of the pandemic Greece went through a strict lockdown in the last month of autumn. By this time days become shorter and the weather colder. The trees and flowers I used to observe and admire [during the first lockdown] started to lose their color and strength. The naked branches and the dry bushes changed the scenery. Yellow, brown, black and grey replaced the green and vivid colors while the beautiful metamorphosis of nature left everything to rest and stay quiet for a while. During my walks I became a collector by picking from the ground pieces of dry and dead twigs, thorny branches and flowers. These findings haunted me for a while. They were dead but extremely beautiful and all I wanted was to give them life again. I visualized them perfect, beautiful and alive. Powerful and proud. At that time my soul was trying not to collapse by the fear of the pandemic, the constant deprivation of social life and freedom, the threat of illness, isolation and death. Those dry – dead – dark – fragile pieces of nature gave me hope. My inner self would bloom again and these phenomenal dead finds would be reborn. I came up with the idea of a jewelry collection that consists of pieces made from those dead nature’s findings and other materials. A collection reflecting my deepest feelings of fear, frustration and hope at the same time. My garden of feelings and thoughts would become the “Soul Garden” jewelry collection.