DANI VELLANI

Jewellery Designer

At various times in his life, Dani Vellani, a bona fide Renaissance man, has been an internationally known restauranteur, a published novelist and poet, a commercial and freelance photographer, a videographer and an award-winning ceramicist whose works are now in the hands of collectors worldwide. His video of Tia Vellani’s art installation, Elvira Deported, premiered at the HACS gallery in the Design District of Miami, Florida in the fall of 2007 and will be available for viewing at their new studio in the Castlecomer Estate Yard in County Kilkenny. Look for the sign that says “Artists by Night”.

And now, this intrepid artist is on the move once again, this time crossing over to jewellery design. A sculptor from 1992 until 2007, he worked with his own original formulations of raku glazes, fabricating improbably huge clay masks, iridescent figurines and wildly imaginative sculptures. His themes encompassed gargoyles, mythic animals, spirits, fairies and symbols, often incorporating Celtic and tribal elements. Curiously, he occasionally made raku clay jewellery components.

In shifting from making decorative sculpture to wearable sculpture, he now works with metals of all types, flame-forming them to shape them into complex, abstract nuggets about which he weaves fabulous tales. His techniques are adaptations of those of ancient and primitive peoples, which he has infused with his own twist to create original, contemporary jewellery artworks.

Dani is well known for his outrageous creativity and fearlessness in testing untrodden ground. He is endlessly playing with potential art materials and envisioning novel ways to manipulate them. Keep an eye on this one, folks, and expect great things as this versatile artist gears up for a brand new life.