Quarantine Q&A with Katrina Lucas
A quarantine Q&A with Bahamian artist, Katrina Lucas,
on creating earrings,
inspiring women and the power of social media for art in the
digital age.
Of Dauphine’s recent favourites, we’re not sure what we’re more obsessed with—Bahamian artist, Katrina Lucas, or the statement earrings she creates. A true artist, Lucas is unbound by the confines of practicing one medium, exploring graphic design, painting and digital art—but handcrafted, shoulder-grazing, made-to-order earrings are her forte.
Inspired by women, Lucas’ designs embody modern femininity. Minimal yet abstract in shape, the sloping cuts and curves of each pair of earrings evoke the female body, ranging in colour from pearly whites and sea glass blues to hibiscus oranges and conch shell pinks reflecting Lucas’ island upbringing. A blazing Bahamian exemplar of creating art with a purpose—Lucas donates a percentage of each purchase towards helping a woman in need as well as a charity that assists the disabled. In true quarantine fashion, we reached out to Lucas for a virtual interview about her artistry and her British Vogue featured creations. We were all ears.
DAUPHINE: Who is Katrina Lucas?
SO! I was born and raised in The Bahamas. I was raised living in between Abaco and Nassau during my childhood, traveling to visit my father in Abaco every other weekend. During those weekends and holidays I spent my time in my second home—an art gallery in Little Harbour named Pete’s Pub and Gallery. Since I began getting serious about my art 3 years ago I have always given full credit for my creativity to my second family in Pete’s Pub and my parents.
Without the encouragement from the artists in the gallery and without the support from my parents who still push me to be more creative and to explore my weaknesses and strengths in the art world, I really don't know if I would have gotten to this level of creativity in my life yet.
I have always been creative, from a very young age (I'll guesstimate since I was a toddler) but once high school hit creating wasn't my cup of tea any more. This was up until I moved back to Nassau from North Carolina and started working in the cutest boutique coffee shop/bistro, Biggity. I was surrounded by local artists and art all day, every day and it influenced me and inspired me to get back into it. Biggity was actually the first shop that ever displayed my art work and they will always have a special place in my heart for that.
DAUPHINE: The art of earring design is intricate and unique—how did you get into it?
I fell in love with some earrings on Instagram that a stay at home mom was making to help support her family. Her earrings were so incredibly bold and she shared the entire process. I began to think about making some myself in February of 2019. It wasn't until later that year in May when I was on a trip and I was standing in Michaels looking at all of the earring making supplies and clay that I really decided this was something I was going to do. Everyone in my life at the time was so incredibly supportive and encouraged me to sell them. At the time I was honestly very nervous about selling them even though I had sold multiple paintings at this point.
DAUPHINE: Are you self-taught? How did you learn how to make earrings?
I am self-taught. Thanks to YouTube, Google and some Instagram collectives I've learned everything that I know about this medium and I never stop learning new techniques with polymer clay. The growth between May 2019 and now is incredible, my first pair of earrings were hot messes and amazingly sold. Sadly, at the time I was using the wrong type of clay and they all broke but the women were so patient and understanding. After doing some more digging on Google to learn more about the medium and learning that there was a market for the earrings in The Bahamas, it really pushed me to better my product and still does.
DAUPHINE: Living in The Bahamas, have you found any challenges making your earrings— such as shipping, exposure, ordering materials, or others? Or do your surroundings inspire you?
There are challenges of course like the fact that I have to order the materials into the country, shipping domestically and internationally but I always try to look at these challenges as opportunities or think about how I can make this easier for myself in the future. For example, shipping internationally is hard and expensive but it’s completely worth it when I get an excited message for a customer or I'm tagged in photos of women looking absolutely wonderful in their earrings. There are so many supportive women in The Bahamas and their support goes beyond purchasing the earrings. There are so many that share my work, message me complimenting the work and some send ideas or recommendations for new styles or names for earrings. They also recommend the earrings to friends which is huge because of the exposure.
There are so many ladies that have been there for me from the beginning who seem to have an endless amount of love for my work and honestly they are the ones that inspire me when there any challenges. I know that despite these challenges my earrings have made these women feel confident or made their day 100x better. It makes it so worth it.
DAUPHINE: On the flip side, with successes like being featured in British Vogue—how does it feel to have gained such exposure from a country with a smaller art and design community than most?
It is an incredible feeling. I felt overwhelmed with so many emotions when they got in contact, I was patriotic, I was nervous because that meant I'd be showing the world my craft, and I also wanted to share the feeling with every Bahamian artist I knew at the time. I feel like every one of us deserves a moment in the spotlight because there are so many deserving artists. I am proud of my work and proud of the fact that I was featured British Vogue and Tatler. I hope my features will inspire more Bahamian artists to connect and get in contact with these magazines or their dream galleries. I feel as though our art work and our incredible artists need to be showcased on the international platform more often—representing our country and creating a stir.
DAUPHINE: You have over 3,000 followers on Instagram—do you think social media has helped you get your designs out there more? In what ways?
I strongly feel that social media is huge for any artist or business out there. Social media (Instagram) is my "store front", it’s where I run ads, market my business, and it’s where customers get a sense of who I am and a better understanding of who they are buying from. With Instagram everything can be seen as free exposure, such as people sharing your work on their stories or with their friends, and that's how I've grown my following in the past year—just ads and people being absolutely amazing and sharing my work. I've learned through being a business that it’s not always easy trying to create a following. Finding the desire to post every day or even finding content to post, and re-learning Instagram’s ever-changing algorithm is difficult but it’s beneficial because it’s a free platform where you have access to everyone and you know there will always be someone out there who will love your work. I am ever so grateful for every follower because it’s like they are my other little family that who supports me and cheers me on.
DAUPHINE: What is your design to creation process like? You don’t have to spill all of your secrets of course—just a brief run down!
Ah, this is such a fun question and I always love talking about this. My creation process is like every other artist, speaking generally, the majority of us need an atmosphere, a white noise, something on our desk, or 3 shots of espresso to get our brains wired and ready (okay, that may be only me). My creative process starts off very organized, my clay is lined up in front of me and my clay machine has to be clean, my tools are taken out and Grey’s Anatomy is (always) playing in the background. I first condition the clay making. When it’s soft, playable and at the thickness I would like the earring to be, I add on a pattern or just cut out the shape with the tools, I lay it on a baking sheet lined with paper and throw the earring components in the oven for almost an hour.
Once they come out, I sand the components down to make them smooth, drill the holes and then I move on to my favourite part, assembly and photographing them. This always includes more coffee and either some house music of some sort or some classical music, it totally depends on the feel of the collection. At the end of it all, I pack up all the creating materials and either put the assembled earrings in a drawer or pack them up for an order.
