Featured Designer – Cathrin Striffler

I’m soo excited and honored to have Cathrin Striffler as the very first “FEATURED Jewelry Designer Of The Month” of our new Designer of the Month series, by VeruDesigns.

As a jewelry designer myself, I’ve come to know many other designers over time whose works I genuinely love and appreciate.  And so, in the spirit of “sharing the love” the idea of shining a spotlight on these beautiful creations and the amazing women and men behind them makes complete sense to me.  I believe that anything that is good and beautiful, anything that brings about a smile and inspiration ought to be shared a lot more.  We get enough bad news on TV, and there is plenty of jealousy and competitiveness spreading around. Why not share the BEAUTY, the expressions of love that are being created every day?

So… without further due, let me introduce you to the amazing Cathrin Striffler, a Germany-based jewelry designer that specializes in handmade miniature food jewelry. If you’ve been a subscriber for a while, you may recall Cathrin’s works from a prior post, but this is the first time that Cathrin and her pieces are the stars of our “Tuesday’s Reveal”.

I’ve been a fan of Cathrin’s work for a while! I just loooove the perfectly real-looking (and TINY!) world of deliciousness that she creates through her jewelry.  Notice the coin and matchstick in most images that will give you a better idea of the small scale of each piece.

But aside from being an amazing Artist, I’m also a fan of hers as a human being.  She might be the only person who I have never met in person, but have a complete “knowing” of this fact.

You see, around two years ago,  VeruDesigns was just beginning to exist in my life and Cathrin and I connected through social media as a means of admiring our works.  Suddenly tragedy knocked my door, and I found myself in the most devastating and personal moment of my life.  As a result I stopped everything I was doing and within a day I left the US and flew back home to Bolivia to be with my family and face whatever came our way.   The next 12 months were probably the hardest of my life, and aside from a very, very small number of people, for some reason I never shared what had happened in our family with anybody else, not even some of my lifetime friends.  I just couldn’t speak those words.  The death of someone you love has that effect sometimes.

Yet somehow, this beautiful woman from Germany who had never met me in person and knew nothing about me or my life, somehow sensed that something was wrong, and without knowing why I had disappeared, she sent me the most loving message of support I’ve ever received.

Her letter felt like the biggest “hug” in the world,  and allowed me to cry for the first time since it all had unfolded. Tears of relief, tears of  knowing that, “it’s all going to be ok“. . .

I guess this is how “soul-friendships” happen!

This gives you an idea of the woman behind the Art.

Cathrin and her husband Marc, live with their 2 children Mia 7 and Ray 4, in Waldenbuch, Germany; which is a town known best for being the home of “Ritter Sport Chocolate“, the world famous chocolate brand popular in all 5 continents.

As with most Artists, Cathrin didn’t “choose” to be an artist. Art chose her.  From the time she can remember, the arts were not only her means of expressing her creative energy, but was what made her feel the most. . . her.  Her home today is filled with her own Paintings and Art. Oh yes, besides a jewelry designer she is also a painter (I’m hoping to be able to showcase some of her “other” Art in a future post!).

But as it happens often, the “reality” of life makes us do, or better said makes us “believe” that the Arts are not the most reasonable career-pursuit in life.  So, as with many amazing talents out there, she did what she thought was “the right thing” by choosing a different career for as long as she could bear doing it.   But  then when her children came into her world, everything changed in a sense.  Motherhood seems to do that, and I’m sure many of you who are mothers can relate to that.

You love these little people sooo much, more than you could’ve ever imagined being capable of loving, and all you want is for them to be happy, healthy and fulfilled human beings. That becomes the most important pursuit in life.

It’s interesting how life guides us back to the real truths in our Soul.  It certainly was the case for Cathrin.  The love for her children was the catalyst that gave her the courage to focus her attention from a career that never was her calling, to just LOVE.  But when your main focus is LOVE, other wonderful things begin to emerge.   Becoming a stay-at-home-mom gave her the opportunity to re-discover her love for the Arts, and this is how her artistic career was born.

Like myself, Cathrin is a complete self-taught Jewelry Designer. Around 4 years ago she discovered clay (polymer clay) almost by chance and from the moment she held this medium she fell in love with it.  It didn’t take her long to realize that miniature food jewelry was something she was not only good at, but extraordinarily so.  And when skills meet passion, wonderful things are bound to happen.

Today, Cathrin shares her work through facebook. If you haven’t visited her page yet, you can do so NOW!

Just click HERE to visit her facebook page and if you enjoy her pieces, make sure to “LIKE” it and say “hi” to Cathrin yourself!  Let her surprise you  as she surprises me (every time!!), and be delighted with her always intrinsic and beautiful jewelry pieces.

Her pieces are also a perfect and very UNIQUE gift to someone you care about.  To visit her online shop, click here!

To contact Cathrin directly, visit her page on FACEBOOK and send her a direct message.

Let me know what you think about today’s reveal, and most importantly SHARE the love with those you care about if these pieces made you smile!

Much love to you,

– Veruschka