Happy New Year!

Change is upon us, and there are big changes here at Zecca.

After 15 long years of hand making all of Zecca's accessories, and buttons, and designing my expanding line of needlepoint canvases, I will be discontinuing the accessories.

*The button line will still be available.

The time I will be freeing up not producing Polymer clay accessories will be spent designing canvas projects and embellishments. I'm excited about what is ahead. I am allowing myself to fallow a path which has been difficult to peruse given the amount of hats I've been wearing.

Please spend some time browsing my website, taking in all the canvases and original projects I've been accumulating over these past 9 years( of canvas production). Mine are not the usual projects. I have been building my graphic vocabulary for many years and love bringing what I do to the needlepoint world. I hope you will enjoy what you find here.

I'm happy to be taking this next step in the progression of Zecca.
Please stay in touch and let me know what you think of my new diversions.

Have a great 2012!
Best Stitches, Karen

*Please "like" me on Facebook and join in conversation there. I'd love it if you'd post any Zecca related projects there!

A Little History:

The name ZECCA springs directly from the Italian word "zecca" meaning a coin factory.

My concept in naming ZECCA was to create a majestic link between valuable coins and precious buttons. ZECCA buttons are made from a synthetic modeling material known as Polymer Clay. "Fimo" is the most popular brand of this material, which has been around for about 40 years. I've been working with it extensively for 20 some years!

Much of my button and bead work is done in the ancient glass-making technique known as "Millefiore" where bars or sheets of color are combined or bundled and then "caned" out to reduce the image, after which the cane is sliced, revealing a pattern in cross section. The intricate forms and unique palettes of hand-mixed colors which characterize ZECCA pieces have been described as "springing directly from raw nature ... as well as the outer limits."

While Fimo is widely marketed for children (some people initially confuse my work with the trinkets their kids make at camp), it has been said that "ZECCA jewelry, buttons, and decorative objects are so alive with color and vibrancy, that they defy their synthetic origin."

It is with much delight that I share this work with you!