About
Thiewes has been living in the El Paso area for close to forty years, and her time there has inspired much of her work. The mountainous desert, the blistering sun, the Lowrider car culture – all have awakened her senses and become essential elements within her pieces. Much of Thiewes’s early work contains forms like spiculums (sharp, spear-like shapes) and disks (smooth, rounded shapes) which she uses to comment on gender roles and assumptions. Sound and movement are also integral elements of her jewelry, which often produces sound. Through Thiewes’s rhythmic structure of these gendered forms, she creates pieces that empower women, declaring that they will command every room they enter.
As her career progressed, Thiewes took these themes of feminism a step further through her use of movement, light and color. Her work transitioned from having movement and creating sound to having the appearance of movement and creating sound. The gendered disks became bigger, more open, and they looked as if they were in mid-twirl, creating optical illusions. These pieces also play with color and light in a different way from her previous works. Seeing the thriving Lowrider car culture in El Paso inspired Thiewes to dive head-first into the possibilities of color. The way the metallic flecks reflected the light of these lowriders sparked a new approach to creating her statement pieces. Vibrant ochres, purples, chartreuses and reds dominate her work now, with each piece’s color being carefully considered in various lights.
Rachelle Thiewes wants all who wear her jewelry to feel empowered and to feel like they are part of the piece’s story. She believes the woman that wears her jewelry activates the unique, eye-catching qualities of the pieces, through her own strength and character. Without the woman, her pieces are only at half their potential.
Laura Hutchison Bhatti
Metal Museum, HUED exhibition