SEATTLE — A Seattle jewelry designer is using crochet to create one-of-a-kind rings, necklaces and earrings.
Twyla Dill wants her statement pieces to send women an actual message: “Be yourself, loud and clear.”
"I like to think that I'm bringing the traditional grandmother's crochet to kind of a new level,” she said. “I've always really liked details that are so fiddly and small, and that was fiddly and small, it was really fun!”
Her line of vibrant, stylish jewelry is a juxtaposition of metalwork and tiny, intricate stitches.
She creates the line in a Lake City studio, but the inspiration began years ago when she was a teenager.
"I actually had quite a crazy journey of realizing that school wasn't working for me. And so technically, I'm a high school dropout,” Dill said. "I like to phrase it differently because I went into the unschooling world."
She spent a year traveling abroad with her father and eventually lived overseas in Istanbul, Turkey.
"It's actually a lot like Seattle in that it has a lot of rolling hills,” she said. "I fell in love with Turkish dancing and Turkish music."
She also became enraptured by Turkish art, including Oya — crocheted lace.
“I was obsessed," she said. "I was crocheting tiny things since then.”
Oya morphed into her own designs and Twyla Dill jewelry was born in 2015.
Creating each handmade piece is a multi-step process, beginning with the metalwork to form the jewelry. Then Dill painstakingly crochets designs onto the small pieces.
It's a meditative exercise that requires intense focus. Dill counts every stitch to make sure the pieces are uniform.
But that's where her interest in uniformity ends. She wants her work to represent individuality.
"I think in this culture, we are told a lot what is trendy, or what is cool to wear. That's always kind of just driven me nuts,” she said. "While it can be fun to follow a trend, where you really find freedom is in self-expression. It's exciting to see people kind of come into that."
Dill hopes her customers wear their pieces with feelings of joy and empowerment.
"Helping women feel really in love with themselves and excited about themselves, and to celebrate that,” she said. "You're the most important person in your life!”
Dill runs a stall at Pike Place Market every Friday-Monday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The pieces are also available to order online.
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