At the time this is being published/sent to your inbox, I'm on my way to Japan and Taiwan for the PROFESSIONAL FRIEND Asia Tour, but I wanted to show off the real-life inspiration for the tour graphics I made for the posters/t-shirt; the PROFESSIONAL FRIEND un-friendship bracelets, designed with and crafted by Toronto jewellery maker Liane Vaz.
I've known Liane for about 15 years now. We went to the same art school (albeit in different programs), and she was in the same program as one of my housemates. We weren't close, but I've somehow always had jewellery people in my orbit, so I've kept up with – and always been impressed by – her work throughout the years. Liane's work is bold, ornate, and even intimidating at times! But she commands an entire universe of craftsmanship, tradition (both historical and fictional), and humour. She's also a go-to jeweller for the most ELITE of ball-knowers, so when it came time to put my plans for album art into motion, I knew who to call.
My plans to for the PROFESSIONAL FRIEND album art actually stemmed from a throwaway joke amongst my friends (related to an overheard conversation pertaining to a Taylor Swift concert). I'd been working on the music for about 7 or 8 months at the time, and was just starting to think about visual themes. I'd already started putting together mood boards, and mocking up layouts, but when this nuke hit the group chat, I knew my trajectory had been set!
I instantly knew Liane was the jeweller for the job. Most of the jewellery I have is not particularly loud. It's mostly smaller, simpler pieces, some of which was gifted from family. But the melodrama of all the music I was writing, and the theme of friendship breakups as a whole, called for something that made a statement; if I was going to put an excessively glamourous spin on friendship bracelets, I had to get the most ✨enchanted✨ goldsmith in the game!
When I reached out to Liane with the concept, she was instantly in. I walked her through the story of how the project came to be, and some of the ideas I wanted to see reflected in the bracelet. She also proposed the materials for the jade and onyx beads to complement the crafted gold beads and charms. But, perhaps most importantly to the feasibility (and affordability) of this, Liane works with heirloom jewellery – she was able to take a portion of some existing gold jewellery, melt it down, and re-forge it into all the letter beads and charms.
Photos by Liane Vaz.
The bracelets you see here are actually not the original models though. Eagle-eyed viewers might have clocked that the bracelet on the artwork for PROFESSIONAL is substantially different. That's because the original version of these designs were crafted with flatter, thinner, engraved charms. They had a really cool, almost technical illustration feel to them, but those designs suffered from vulnerable joints, prone to bending/snapping (which happened a few times). Ever the professional problem solver though, Liane was able to re-design them, and re-cast them into stronger load-bearing components.
The letter beads are cast in heirloom 10K gold, individually engraved in Neue Haas Grotesk. There are also three branded charms – the snake, the dagger, and the evil eye – also cast in 10K gold, modelled from the artwork for PROFESSIONAL FRIEND.
I really can't recommend Liane's work enough! In addition to custom commissions, she also has a shop where she sells stock and made-to-order designs. A core value we founded Sanzuwu Group on was collaboration with amazing artists across disciplines, and I'm really proud to have added Liane to the Sanzuwu extended family! If you're ever in Toronto, she's also built Another Realm Studio, where you can book a studio visit to shop or meet for a consultation, rent the space for photoshoots and other productions, or sign up for the workshops she hosts.
Photos by Liane Vaz.
Anyway, I'll be on the road for the next couple weeks, but I wanted to leave you with some cool stuff til I'm back! Just yesterday we dropped a new entry on the Sanzuwu Mixtape Delivery Service, and I also made this super quick walkthrough on how I modelled Liane's bracelets in Blender to create the Asia Tour poster and t-shirt graphic!
Have a great weekend!