Following Your Passion: Tanya Coelho

In the Following Your Passion series we'll be interviewing people and brands that we love here at Zefyr. People who inspire us, brands we love to follow, labels that make us tingle. All of them with one thing in common: Passion.

We thought we'd kick off the series with an interview with Zefyr's very own designer, Tanya Coelho. Here she talks about her loves, inspirations, struggles, and dreams...

Tanya at Thanon Setthathirat Temple, Laos.

    What are you passionate about?

I'm passionate about creating beautiful things that make people happy. That's it in a nutshell. My raison d'être.

I feel very strongly about sustainability and the impact waste has on the environment. I'm a passionate advocate for creating positive change. It's the wide-eyed idealist in me.

I'm damn passionate about travel - blame my wanderer's heart for that. The idea of going to exotic new places and seeing amazing things makes me fizz with anticipation every time I plan a trip. Travel has a way of broadening our horizons in a way that nothing else can. 

The inspiration I receive from my travels is absolutely priceless so I tell everyone I meet to 'get out there, see the world, travel!'.

What did you want to be when you grew up?

An artist. I wasn't sure exactly what kind of artist I wanted to be I just knew that I wanted to make things. I loved drawing and was always surprised when my pencil translated what I had pictured in my head. You know that song "Gotta dance"? Well for me it was "Gotta make".

How did you come to jewellery design?

I was at that crossroads in life in your late teens where you have to decide what you want to do with the rest of your life (no pressure!). I was trying to choose between becoming an art historian or becoming an artist - i.e. the safe or the scary option. My school was very academic so I was starting to lean away from following the creative option when by a lucky chance I happened to read The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho (no relation). The book was all about following your dream with courage. It resonated so strongly with me that I decided to follow that dream of mine and enrolled at art college the next week.

While I was at college I discovered metal, how fun it is to work with and haven't looked back since...

Tanya's Inspiration for the Chime Pendant was taken from Ancient Greek pottery, as modelled by Maddy.

What do you love about what you do?

The freedom to choose how my day looks. I love that every day is an adventure of my own choosing.

What do you hate?

Paperwork! I'm terrible with numbers and when I have to do the monthly receipt sorting the numbers just swim in front of my eyes. Luckily I now have a fabulous bookkeeper who helps me out enormously.

What inspires you?

So many things inspire me. I can be walking down my street and fall in love with the way a pink camellia in a neighbour's garden looks by moonlight, or I can be on the other side of the world and be caught by sight of a wisp of smoke from a stick of burning incense. I love to travel and wander - in my local area, in exotic locations, in my own head, in the lyrics of a song...                    

How would you define your aesthetic creativity?

Maximalist. I love beauty, the more of it the better. I love decorative detailing and layering it in a simple way along with colour. I'm very girly and my designs reflect my feminine aesthetic. No modernist geometric lines for me.

The Henry VIII ring was inspired by the time Tanya spent living in Edinburgh, as modelled by Maddy.

What is your working process? How do you come about to bringing fruition to your ideas?

I'll usually start by sketching my idea roughly into my travelling notebook which goes everywhere with me. You never know when creativity is going to hit you over the head so you have to be prepared. Then I'll get into the studio and start playing. It will take me quite a while to find the perfect proportion for a design I'm thinking of. In jewellery just 1mm can make all the difference between something that's pleasing and something that looks slightly askew.

I'll either carve my idea from wax or build it up out of metal. It can be a fast or a slow process depending on my head space. When I design my studio space and surroundings have to be very clean and tidy. My husband finds this hilarious as at home I'm a total mess hurricane.

What does a typical day at work look like for you?

It very much depends on my mood and feeling on the day. I might get up and meditate for half an hour or do my yoga practice. I'll then either work from home answering emails and doing research or I'll hop on the bus to my design studio and work from there for the day - designing, chatting to my 'studio wife' Mel who's the fashion designer I share my space with, or just daydreaming over a cup of herbal tea. I like to listen to classical music while I work as it helps me feel more calm and clear.

What do you struggle with?

I have an autoimmune condition which affects my thyroid. This means I get very tired and feel off quite often. As a business owner with a chronic illness I struggle day to day with feelings of frustration. Something that has helped me hugely to deal with this has been my mindfulness meditation practice. It has helped me to be kinder on myself and to be more accepting on 'bad' days where I just feel awful, and to make the most of the 'good' days when I feel better.

Art deco architecture was the inspiration for Tanya's design of the Arabesque Earrings, worn by Maddy.

What's a fabulous secret no one knows about you?

I'm an L M Montgomery fangirl. I have read and re-read Anne of Green Gables to the point where my current copy is held together with scotch tape. Ever since I discovered Montgomery's works I've had a burning desire to have red hair, freckles, and green eyes - but with my olive mediterranean looks that wasn't ever going to happen. Utterly tragical.

What are you most looking forward to?

My next big trip overseas to Laos and Cambodia. Yaze! Can't wait. 

Any advice for aspiring creatives out there?

One piece of advice I was given when I was in my early stages was to outsource in those areas that you're not so good at. Find out your weaknesses - for me its numbers, no surprises there - and find an expert who's good at it. Then pay them to do that work. Something that might take me a week to do will take an expert an hour. Use your precious time wisely.