Katrina is a Bahamian artist who not only creates beautiful jewelry, but also incredible artwork. We discovered Katrina when she created pieces for the Hurricane Dorian relief efforts. We are excited to share her story with you, as well as our new coloring sheet!
1. What is your favorite shark and why?
When I was 11, I was training and working on a dive boat while also getting my PADI Scuba license. There’s one specific memory that I have during that time where we jumped around a couple of spots in Abaco and the very last was my first ever shark dive. We all sat in a circle and waited for these three ( what seemed to me at the time) massive reef sharks. The feeling was incredible when one came towards me and I knew exactly how to handle him.
The shark had an incredible kindness about him, almost like a puppy dog. As he swam by me I held out my hand and softly petted him. Because of that incredible memory I would have to say Reef Sharks would be my favorite but deep down I have a love for all sharks.
2. Is there a shark you would like to see or swim with?
Living in The Bahamas I’ve seen almost all of my favorite sharks, the reef shark, hammerhead, nurse shark, lemon, black tip, and tiger. But I’ve only ever been in the water for two of them, the reef shark and the hammerhead and honestly I would love to dive with a hammerhead. I say that because I would like to get over my mini fear of them, they are incredibly intimidating to me and I would love to get over that.
3. Can you tell us about your jewelry and how you got started?
I’ll take you back to the very moment I was inspired.
While scrolling through Instagram looking for similar artists to me, I came upon a couple of polymer clay earring makers. I was completely inspired, but not inspired enough to order the clay and jewelry findings to The Bahamas or to even think about it. Fast forward to a few months, I’m standing in Michael's the art store and feeling completely inspired again looking at the wall of findings and stacks of clay and I had a gut feeling that I knew I had to make earrings.Through trial and error I’ve learned techniques about the material and I’ve learned what materials are best for my customers.
4. How does nature or the ocean inspire your jewelry?
My Jewelry line has always been inspired by the ocean, my first line was actually called “The Ocean Collection” named after my favorite beaches and places in The Bahamas, along with The Shark Toothe earring, its a play off of my last name Toothe, naming these after they truly reminded me of a shark tooth necklace I once owned.
5. Do you think art is important for conservation?
There's a mural downtown, across the street from The Point parking garage in Nassau. It's of the ocean and of a few sea animals. Personally I could not describe to you what it looks like or what it says, but this artwork has always been apart of my memory of Nassau.
Although what I just said has nothing to do with conservation it shows what artwork can do to someone’s memory. I believe if there was more artwork circulating or in public spaces it would help more people to be conservative. If there's a chance that artwork about conservation can leave a mark on someone’s memory like the artwork downtown did to me it would make a whole lot of a difference.
6. You created an amazing coloring sheet for us, do you enjoy drawing sharks and marine life?
Drawing sharks and marine life is such a joy. I don't do it often because I usually work with people or abstracts but it was an absolute joy to create the coloring sheet and honestly made me want to add some more marine life to some of my digital work.
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