Le Lou Ula Atelier

The soulful work by Bramble Lee Pryde, the artist behind Le Lou Ula Atelier, first captured us with its raw aesthetic and subtle beauty. Each and every piece shows evidence of great passion and skill.

With works in jewelry, ceramics, and even copper, this multi-disciplinary artist likes to experiment and draws inspiration from the Western Canadian wilderness. As a advocate for the slow fashion movement, Le Lou Ula Atelier works in limited runs adding a sense of special purpose and longevity to her work.

Tell us a little about yourself. What kind of artist are you?

Hi there! I’m Bramble, the founder and designer behind Le Lou Ula Atelier. I’ve been doing this as a full-time gig for just over four years. We recently relocated from B.C. to Calgary, and are working out of Workshop Studios, where I make each piece of jewelry and pottery one-by-one in my studio. The term I seem to use the most to describe my artist role is multi-disciplinary, being that I work as a silver/gold smith, ceramist, painter and photographer. I decided to work under the moniker Le Lou Ula Atelier as an umbrella for all the practices.

My path has been vast and varied, for sure. I didn’t know where I would finish up, but always knew that art was the only option. I immediately started working towards my BFA after graduation, but after two years, I switched gears and pursued Design + Formation, a program that merges the design disciplines of spatial formation and communication design by bridging architecture, industrial and graphic design.

After graduation, I spent several years traveling and while spending time in the South Asian regions, I discovered the vital role of adornment in the stories people tell about their culture from generation to generation. This curiosity and passion led me to Australia, where I further specialized and earned my diploma in Metalsmithing from TAFE, Perth.  

How would you describe your work and practice?

Le Lou Ula is an atelier that offers contemporary jewelry, ceramic wares and home objects. All practices are unified by sustainability, longevity and design choices. My stubborn streak makes me continue to challenge the perceptions of housing art, functionality, and design in the same studio.

Essentially, I work in silver, gold and dirt, while utilizing archetypal practices to yield unique results. My aesthetic is rooted in experimenting with texture and bold shape choices. As a general ethos, we strive to embody mindful consumerism, through sustainable and ethical supply sourcing and creating seasonless collections.

As a multi-faceted artist working in jewelry, ceramics, and metalwork, do you have a different mindset when working with each medium?

I think jewelry, ceramics and home objects can be just as contextual as art, as I find each practice for me is largely about process. My jewelry collections start just like any body of work, with a point of inspiration followed by research, studies/prototypes, storytelling – it’s just a matter of choosing my method of creation.

I’m drawn to the multi-faceted artists like Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Alexander Calder and Joan Miró. Calder was a painter, sculptor and created over 2,000 pieces of jewelry, Miró, a painter who also created ceramics, and Taeuber-Arp was successful at amalgamating applied and fine arts. When you dovetail between the mediums you really begin to see how each inspires the other.

Do you ever find these mediums interacting or influencing each other?

Absolutely! Those close to me joke that I’m always trying to make my ceramics look like metal, and texture my metals to look like they have been distressed by rock/clay. For me, it’s about taking an idea and applying it to different mediums to see how it translates from each body of work. The cohesion that the mark makes on my jewelry and surface textures on my ceramics is the added bonus. I’ve added copper to our home objects, and I have a collection in process that combines porcelain, gold and silver for some jewelry pieces –  I think as mediums they look incredible together.

You’ve achieved a quite a global following and have had some neat avenues of exposure. What was the coolest feature of your work to date?

It’s been such an honour working with the people that I have. I definitely need to acknowledge that it all began with the stylist from Pretty Little Liars finding my work on Instagram and how that led to the TV show using my work for their last three seasons –super surreal and the guilty pleasure watcher in me loved the show so much. 

Where can people find out more about you?

At Market Collective when they come visit our booth!!!!

Online at www.lelouula.com or on Instagram: www.instagram.com/le.lou.ula

And we are always down for a studio visit! Email us at [email protected] and come check out Workshop Studios!

Thanks for chatting with us Bramble!

Check out Le Lou Ula Atelier at MC’s 9 Year Anniversary.

SEPTEMBER 15-17, 2017

Friday: 4pm - 9pm

Saturday: 10am - 6pm 

Sunday: 10am - 6pm

ADMISSION:

$5 for the weekend

(Kids under 12 Free)

LOCATION:

Inglewood Warehouse

(1390 17th AVE SE)