Today we’d like to introduce you to Denise Ryan.
Denise, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I’ve been apt to create things with my hands for as long as I can remember. Both of my parents had a creative influence on me. My mother, a talented artist, singer and poet, and my father a music aficionado and aspiring writer. As a child, I enjoyed art and music and continued to explore it throughout my youth into adulthood. I drew cartoons for my high school newspaper, painted, sculpted on my free time and played guitar and sang in a couple different bands. After high school, I mostly focused on music, playing in bands and performing solo gigs at bars and coffee shops around town.
Through all of my early art and music adventures, I had this looming feeling that I “wasn’t there yet”. I struggled with my confidence. I had the desire and passion but too much self-doubt. I continued to write music and make art here and there but didn’t take myself seriously as an artist… until I stumbled on electroforming.
After learning about the process, I pieced together the tools and equipment needed and taught myself the art of electroforming. I was lucky to have my first electroformed piece (a mouse skull pendant) come out exactly how I had hoped, and just like that, I was hooked.
I began experimenting with anything and everything and along the way, I found my personal style. After a few months of fun, I decided to share what I was doing on social media and open my first Etsy store under the name Graveheart Creations. I was overwhelmed with the positive response I received and was driven to keep it going. I had finally found my way in the art world. Graveheart Creations, which later became Aphotic Bloom, was a beam of motivating light through some very hard trying times.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Being a one-woman operation can be tricky. There isn’t anyone to snap you out of a lull or cover for you when you need a break. It’s just me. I’ve definitely had some challenges over the short time I’ve had my business but each challenge has contributed to sharpening my focus on my future.
The end of 2017 became very dark as I watched the decline of my fathers’ health and emotional sanctity. He had battled cancer for too many years and the end was closing in. He passed on February 1st of 2018 and part of me went with him. I was suddenly reliving all kinds of suppressed thoughts and emotions that I had skipped over while he was alive and fighting. I still hadn’t even fully dealt with my mother’s death.
I didn’t create much at all while I was sorting all of this out. I took a break… when I was ready to come back, I felt a big change was in order. I felt like I had gone through years of growth in a matter of months and wanted to change my business’s name to reflect that. I wanted it to mean something to me rather than just be a play on words. The name Aphotic Bloom represents the ability to grow in an impossible environment or more specifically, complete darkness. My goal was to also fine tune my brand’s overall image. Give it more of professional polish.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Aphotic Bloom – what should we know?
The end result is electroformed art and jewelry. Electroforming allows you to encase even the most delicate of objects in metal. I currently work with copper and a variety of objects from fossils and minerals to insects and animal bones. As an avid collector of natural odds and ends, this art form is my perfect creative outlet. I get to immortalize beautiful organic objects that would otherwise wither away and be forgotten.
Something I do that I feel sets me apart from other electroformers is leaving sections of the natural object exposed. Particularly cranial sutures on small skulls. My first trademark design was small skulls encased in copper with parts left exposed. I also really love to work with broken bits that may be overlooked or tossed out by other artists. Though each piece is always one of a kind with its own textures and details a piece made of reformed broken materials is uniquely special in my opinion.
Contact Info:
- Website: aphoticbloom.etsy.com
- Email: aphoticbloom@yahoo.com
- Instagram: @aphotic_bloom
Image Credit:
Cecilia Jo Elam
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