“I’M SURPRISED SHE DIDN’T HISS AT YOU!”
says Julie Misasi. When I open the door of her home-based studio, Bella, her white-bibbed cat (and namesake of her business Bella Accessories), is on high alert.
Misasi’s greatest professional obstacle so far has been the curiosity of her cats (Chloe being Bella’s reliable sidekick) and misdirected wags of her golden retriever, Dallas. So when Misasi’s older son Nicholas recently moved out, she quickly called dibs on his room, which also helped eliminate unintentional fingerprints from her equally curious husband Jim and younger son Noah.
In the trial and error process of creating her line of bling (compact mirrors, purse hangers and hand-painted pendants), Misasi has learned how to MacGyver her way out of a few sticky situations. And nail polish remover has become her best friend since she opened in 2010.
“It’s ironic that I was left with this giant jug of nail polish remover from my esthetician days. I wondered what on earth I would ever do with it, and now it all makes sense.”
The jug of magic became a saving grace in her initial attempts to create the compact mirror designs. Using too much paint in the shallow trays of the compacts resulted in an overflow, which sealed them all shut overnight.
Misasi’s studio has all the makings of a science lab. Eye droppers and cotton swabs are used for precision to fill shallow, silverplated pendant trays.
The Pebeo Fantasy line of paints from France that she uses are time-sensitive, adding to the production stress. Asked if it’s like melting chocolate on the stovetop, she replies: “Yes! You leave it a few seconds too long and you’re suddenly left with a big chunky mess. “And then you just never know what design you’ll end up with. The paint continues to shift as it settles and hardens for another 24 hours. The jewellers-grade ice resin, which is applied like a top coat to create the 3D bezel effect, can become really tacky. If you play with it too long, it doesn’t set properly.” Her designs mimic the texture of butterfly wings, colourful beetle backs and the moon’s surface.
“At first glance, many customers think these are real gems,” says Misasi.
A close look at one of her box chain necklaces reveals why — they look exactly like geode slices. Her palette swings wildly from the burnt orange of a sunset to azure waters of the Caribbean to lava lamp purples. She quickly dispels any notion that her accessories resonate with only a specific age group. Spreading out a dozen velvet boxes, it’s obvious that the silver-plated bracelets inside are timeless and ageless. She points out her latest diversion, a broach. “Scarves are so popular now and though I steer away from trends, I wanted to create something with a modern feel, not so ‘granny,’” she says. It raises the question, did her own grandmother wear broaches? Was this perhaps her inspiration?
“Granny’s still alive!” she says. “She’ll be 102 soon and yes, she proudly wears my broaches and brags about them to her friends at the nursing home.”
It might surprise many that Bella’s