Nicola Dawn: The Subversive Power of Wearable Art

Susie (00:02)

Hello and welcome to Pleasure Morsels. Thanks for being here. I'm so excited to be sitting with Nicola Dawn of Lord Violet Jewelry. So Lord Violet is a subversive yet femme jewelry line influenced by alternative subculture. Brass is paired with recycled components to create designs that are luxurious yet eco-responsible. A consistent theme of black and gold creates a dark, provocative, and edgy collection that pushes boundaries. Created by independent Canadian designer, Nicola Dawn, out of her studio based in Montreal.

Thanks so much for being here, Nicola. So excited. So we are here to talk about the erotic and the pleasureful and the sensual in the creative process.

So for you, what parts of the creation process are most connected to erotic expression?

Nicola (01:09)

Yeah, so it really, it starts with design for me. So I'm looking at things that I find really beautiful and subversive and I find ways, I'm looking for ways to make them into wearable art. So for me, the symbols of erotic often stem from BDSM. Personally, BDSM and fetish subculture.

So I like to take those kind of symbols, for example, like the O-ring, which for anyone who's not familiar, the O-ring is traditionally something that's worn by a submissive on usually like a leather collar or a collar that might be attached to a leash. And it's interesting because a submissive in the BDSM context is in the position of

giving up control, but this person at the same time actually has the most power. So I would like to say that I've taken that symbol, the O-ring, from the caller and not only said, okay, let's remember the amount of power that this person actually has in this position, but also trying to subvert it and say that you don't always have to be in that position of submission.

I also like to wear it as a symbol of dominance, to be honest. I think it's a very strong symbol. I'm very much aroused by hardware also. So the O-ring is just literally a circle of either brass or silver. And it has this beautiful, like, you know, there's all different sizes, but it has this beautiful weight to it and this like heaviness. So when it's put on jewelry, it's very stunning visually to me because of that weight. And so when someone's wearing it, the wearer can feel their power in that sense. So you can be submissive, you can be dominant. And it's shown by that, it could be even really small over on your neck, but that little symbol that's there that not even everyone knows about too.

Susie (03:26)

That's so lovely because when I see your pieces, it is that, the circle, and you keep it simple. There might be other kind of adornments and detail, but it's the pureness of the O that is really striking.

Nicola (03:48)

Yeah, well it can be used very simply, right? So I like to make statement jewelry, but at the same time, if it can be something that has, you know, it catches the eye, it's a little bit different, maybe something that you haven't seen before, and people either, if they don't know, they might be wondering like, hmm, what is that? Or if they know, then they know.

Susie (04:15)

So we have the psychological dynamics of power and dominance and submission that comes into relationship often between two or more people. But here you're taking the elements of it and translating it into jewelry. So what happens when someone puts it on? How do these human bodies connect to the materials that you're playing with?

Nicola (04:42)

I think that's a really interesting question. Yeah, so something that I find really interesting is that not only the first thing that is possible, which I really love, is that the wearer can put this on in any kind of setting or context, so maybe they just want to go to work and feel fucking sexy. And all their coworkers aren't even really going to know, but the jewelry is subtle enough that they can be there wearing it and still kind of feel like a piece of them is either seen or just is there for themselves and on their body and like a reminder. And the other thing that really comes up for me, again, it goes back to like the design process. When I started designing jewelry, like I really, I was making it for myself.

as an invisible femme and looking to really balance my femininity with something a little bit more masculine. So feeling my masculine side, feeling my erotic side as well. So I really, I wanted to create jewelry that used materials that encompassed all of those aspects. So the masculinity and the eroticism and all pieces of or all aspects of each piece I think is so important. So I felt like a lot of jewelry was maybe missing something. Like they would only pay attention to the chain or maybe it was just a chain or just a pendant. So I said, how can I really enjoy every aspect? And that became something where I was like, okay, I'm going to focus on each particular piece.

So the chain for me, I looked for the most interesting chains I could possibly find. And what I started to see was these very luxurious pieces that I'd never seen before or even actually was seeing from my inspirations, like in film noir, for example. The fashion at that time, like 50s, 60s, there was a lot of brass. A lot of vintage jewelry and the snake chain. And there is so much beauty in the snake chain. It comes in a lot of different forms, but it has different widths, it has different thicknesses. And as it sounds, like as a snake chain, it just has tiny little pieces that are connected and it has this movement where it can move basically in all directions. It's like sleek, it's slippery.

So not only does it look beautiful, but it feels really good. So I love that when you put on a piece, you get to feel that against your skin, that softness, that caress. It's sensual in that way as well. So there's the snake chain, and then the other one that's been really important for me is called fishbone chain. And over and over again, I get this feedback from people and they just are so fascinated by the way that it drapes, the different weights of it, how it's like heavy. And then I'll have say maybe men actually who would like to wear jewelry and feel like a bit more feminine where they say, okay, I feel seen in this jewelry because it's heavy, it's edgy. I can wear this and feel like both of my masculinity and femininity are balanced in this specific chain. So. I love that it can do that.

Susie (08:38)

Oh my God, I'm so lucky just to be like sitting across from you and hearing you talk and say words like feel and heavy. Yeah, I'm having fun. So thank you. I'm getting like, it's really the weight and tactile. Like I said before, like you use those words of heavy and weight. And there's also, I think you said, slippery or soft, smooth, and that you can already put those into masc and femme categories, that often something that is simple and weighted is considered more mask. And then something that maybe has a sinuousness that moves fluidly is more of a feminine. And I heard you say the term invisible femme. What's that?

Nicola (09:36)

Mm-hmm. So for me, it was something that I discovered kind of early in, or like, actually not super early in my sexuality or my journey of sexual kind of orientation and exploration. But yeah, for anyone who's not familiar with the term invisible femme, it's usually a woman who identifies as queer.

But because they are very feminine presenting by general societal standards. So like, say for me personally, I love having long hair, I love wearing dresses, skirts, I hate pants, you will probably almost never see me in pants. So things like that. Because they're really not.

Those feminine aspects are really not associated with traditional kind of queerness. In the past, often lesbians, for example, when we had less vocabulary to describe our sexual orientation, were seen as like the trope was their butch and they have short hair and if you want to be seen as a woman who's attracted to women, you had to fit this type and someone would look at you and maybe not really be able to tell that you were interested in women. So in that sense, your sexuality was kind of a race and I felt very much like personally not seen.

Susie (11:13)

Yeah, I hear that. And I relate as well that the symbols of adornment, I can't remember, there is a kind of a word, like coding, I think might be the word. It's like, yeah, I think I shaved my hair, I got like an undercut once, and suddenly all these queers were giving me eyes. I'm like, well, first of all, thank you. And also, how dare you? I was also this queer and hot before, but now I've got this flashing sign that says what group I belong to.

Nicola (11:44)

Mm-hmm. Yeah, I actually had the same experience. I shaved my head. I did a Miley Cyrus haircut in hope well, I mean it wasn't just in hopes of feeling seen and maybe like attracting a partner necessarily, but it was definitely part of the exploration But I did it. I was like, oh no, this is not what I wanted to do. We have to try definitely.

Susie (11:50)

It's important to make mistakes. Okay, so this is, for me, this feels like an important question for myself. And, you know, for often, I think artists have this feeling of like, especially professional artists who are kind of in the daily grind, anyone who's in any creative field, even adjacent to art making. And also erotically, you know, there's, I think, a high, high proportion of folks, whether they're in long-term relationships or not, who feel low desire, who just don't feel connected to source. So this is where my question comes from, is how do you express pleasure and creativity when you're not feeling the flow of inspiration? And does inspiration, as a term, actually exist?

Nicola (13:05)

Yeah, well, I mean, from a design standpoint, because this is like my career, I do. I do have to find it. It's important to keep things going for myself. So I will often go back to what I know. So that will either involve like going back to the materials that I really love or looking at art that I love and inspires me. So for example, with the materials in the studio, making such a big mess and that's the greatest part of it. So I will sit down, I will get out all of my materials and I will just start to play without really having the intention of trying to create something very specific and often I find it just gets the ball rolling and then it's like a roller coaster that I get totally lost on and one thing snowballs into another.

And then for the latter, in terms of arts, there's so many different types of art that I like consuming, but I do, I'm so stimulated visually, so any kind of erotic arts, whether it's going to a museum, looking at an exhibition, going to the library, looking at some books, yeah, and then kind of personally, you know, it's like even if I just wanna put on something that feels good, like to get into the mood. So it all comes down to like wearing something that feels sexy to channel that energy as well as music, like just really surrounding yourself by that ambiance that kind of fits whatever vibe you're trying to create. But in terms of is inspiration real?

I mean, I do feel like there's these very much these concrete moments that happen for me where I see something. Well, it's funny because I'll see something and maybe I won't really think too much about it in that moment. But then it's later that it pops into my head and I'm like, oh, like I want to take that and use it for this other thing. So you never know when and where it's going to strike. I can have moments of sitting down and being really intentional and trying to find it, but I find that takes a lot of time and nothing, there's not always a specific result in that moment. But it's those other times where I've just consumed whatever media, looked at a magazine and two weeks later all of a sudden I'm making jewelry and

It's like, oh, I'm thinking of this visual I have in my head now all of a sudden. So it's hard to really say it as a concrete thing, you know?

Susie (16:13)

But it seems that you go to the external source. So it's not, you're not forcing it to just spring out of you. You're taking other people's work and other materials. It seems like you're playing with things and putting them into different configurations. And sometimes these things need to incubate. Sometimes, and you know, for relating to wider creativity and erotic expression, sometimes there is some downtime when actually trusting the process is that as long as you are staying connected to the external world and where you wanna get to, I think, things are happening.

Nicola (17:05)

Yeah, yeah, giving, I think giving yourself that time is so important too. And I think there's also that a little bit of fear that I've always had, like when I see other people's work, I'm just gonna end up copying it. But what I find is that even if I get inspiration very, like immediately.

Like I see something and I want to take it right away and make it my own. I have this fear, okay no, I'm going to be copying them. This is their work, their art. But I find that it ends up always taking its own life form, like entirely different. So once I started to see that happening, I started to relax a little bit and say like, that's okay.

I can take these ideas and I'm not scared. I don't find a lot of satisfaction in creating something that's a likeness of somebody else's. So I just started to trust myself and say, okay, this is my process. Yes, I will engage in other people's work and art, but I know that it will always end up feeling like mine.

Susie (18:15)

Of course, because no one else has had your life or has your hands. Like, how can it not be something so unique? Yeah. And so this kind of flows into my last question for you, which is, what is your fantasy creation? There's no rules of time, space, resources. What's your dream?

Nicola (18:21)

I mean this is such a big question and I'm like, oh my gosh, so much pressure. But I would say it's like a little bit small scale or the things that came to mind. I'm like, well, I'll be honest about this question, you know, and speak about the ideas that I have had in the past that, you know, I would love to realize one day and kind of was like, I don't know how I'm going to. But some bigger pieces. Like for me, pieces that I work on often are collars, for example, and depending on how they're made, it can take a lot of material. So my dream pieces are like giant, like bottom of the chin down to the collarbone. Yeah, yes, exactly. So I have started to kind of try and play and make things like that. It's so a work in progress, but it's a fun experiment. And even the process of say molding, because what we do in jewelry is we will make a mold and it will be cast, which means the metal is shot into the mold to create the copy of what we'd like to do. The biggest mold is like four inches.

Okay, so you can imagine wanting to make this giant piece and it has to be made basically from materials from scratch. So, giant torches, giant rods of metal, bending them on the giant body forms or bus forms. So, yeah.

Susie (20:20)

Beautiful, and I love that you, you know, a posture collar is restrictive. Like it keeps your neck very, very straight. There's no room for movement. Whereas so many of your pieces now are all about freedom and sensuous movement.

Nicola (20:39)

Mmm, it's true.

Susie (20:41)

Beautiful. Nicola, thank you so much. This has been a delight. I'm feeling inspired. I guess that means inspiration is real. Yeah, thank you so much for sharing your process and yourself in your work.

Nicola (20:51)

Oh, I love that for you.

My pleasure. Thank you so much for having me.