In this studio, bold is beautiful
Dandi Maestre’s eclectic style commands her jewelry home workshop in the Annex
When you enter the exotic studio/ apartment of jewelry and accessory designer Dandi Maestre in Toronto’s Annex neighbourhood, you encounter a heaping bin of antlers.
They’re not the spoils of a shooting rampage — they are naturally shed and among the recycled materials she uses in her craft. There are also nuts, horns and bone sourced from around the world. A shocking-pink hammock pops out in the living room, and in her studio-cum-dining room there are assorted masks, a sprinkling of skulls and tons of jewelry in various stages of completion, including a humungous necklace with different incarnations of Jesus figurines woven throughout. Parrots — real parrots — hang on her chandelier.
Vogue China has ordered an oversized antler necklace for editorial; designer Donna Karan was a client and wears her creations; 93-year-old fashion icon Iris Apfel, subject of this year’s Albert Maysles film Iris, reached out to Maestre but she didn’t pursue it. Maestre shuns the spotlight.
“Iris became this big celebrity and I don’t like that,” Maestre demurs, as Gregorio, a well-fed, grey rescue tabby, circles her feet.
Maestre is tiny with an overgrown personality. She has been making jewelry for almost a decade, starting with fashioning accessories for a Greta Constantine show.
“I never had any training (in jewelry making),” she recalls. “I just made things I liked — accessories and jewelry — and strangely people liked it, too,” she says. “I always liked natural materials. I figured, I’ll do this for me and if it doesn’t sell, I will just keep it.”
She talked her way into an exhibitor booth at a One of a Kind Christmas sale, after being told the deadline was over. Next she went to see Barbara Atkin, then the vice-president of fashion direction for Holt Renfrew, just to pick her brain.
“She called six people in and they bought the whole collection,” Maestre marvels.
Why working at home works for her She sees clients by appointment (she also does major business online) in her home studio and uses assorted tables in the reclaimed dining area to draft her designs. Another room off the living room is her actual work area where sounds akin to a dentist’s drill emanate.
She has always worked at home, initially because of her two kids, Sebastian, now 12 and Ana, 15.
“When I started, my son, Sebastian, was 2 so it was convenient,” she says. “And I was trying something new. I was a graphic designer with a back- ground in advertising until I moved here (from Colombia). My husband Rodolfo was a diplomat (he had an eight-year post as Colombian Trade Commissioner to Canada). Now he leads a non-for-profit foundation called EQ Foundation.
“I like working at home; I like being able to work at any hour. When I started, I worked at night when the kids were asleep. I like my house. I can make all the noise I want. I can have my own music and my own space. Plus it is central and easy to find (for clients).
“I do a lot of online business and that is easy to do at home. I also do my own photography, graphic design and website.”
When it doesn’t work for her “There is a difficulty when the kids come home from school and I have to stop working or I have to move my pieces around,” she allows.
The kids squirrel away in the living room, each with their own computer and electronics. “I had a studio outside the home in a storefront for a while and it didn’t feel right,” she says.
Preventing cabin fever “I understand the seduction of wearing PJ’s all day,” Maestre allows. “They are comfy. But I never work in my PJ’s.
“I get out and walk 10 kilometres a day. I work all day and go out at night. I don’t get cabin fever because I go out. This is the Annex — we have been here for 12 years and we don’t have a car. This neighbourhood reminds me of New York.”
Maestre is a grad of the School of Visual Arts in New York.
“But I don’t feel like I have to get out,” she stresses. “Ever since I started working (with jewelry), it has been my therapy. It gives me ideas and takes away anxiety.”
Separating work from home “I try not to take it out of the two rooms — and I do have a lot of space,” she says.
“The whole apartment is 3,500 square feet and my work area is about 600 square feet. It’s big — there are three bedrooms. That’s why we can do it. Luckily Rodolfo doesn’t mind.”