Interview by CYNTHIA ALTORISO
photography by DAVID CARLO
jewelry by SUBVERSIVE JEWELRY

 

CYNTHIA ALTORISO: In a sentence or two, tell us what you do.

JUSTIN GIUNTA: I am an artist and designer

How did you discover your talent?

I discovered my talent around the age of 3 years old when I illustrated (I could not write yet) my first book about a tent worm traversing the perils of a tennis court.

Tell us about your early influences re what you do.

When I was a kid I imagined many personalities and professions I could potentially be including a spy, a deep-sea archeologist, and a Renaissance style painter. In elementary school I discovered a paste diamond necklace in the costume closet of the theater department, I stole it, (because I was a spy,) and removed all the diamond cut crystals and kept them as the horde in my espionage fantasy. I loved those stones but didn’t revisit the idea of jewelry again until I was living in New York as a college graduate and looking for new materials to work with.

Tell us about an early creation one of your first works.

The first piece of jewelry I created was a charm bracelet fashioned from vintage brass gun charms that I had found in a warehouse type store that sold old jewelry findings from the defunct Rhode Island jewelry factories. I made if for a friend who was a stylist that was obsessed with guns, (she had made gun pillows and gun handbags and gun sunglasses.) As a kid I was also an avid writer of poetry, so the myriad of vintage charms I found became the words for my narrative jewelry pieces.

Who is your client or market…who buys you?

My market is women who have a personality, a sense of individuality and a penchant for personal style over media dictated trend or fashion. They are all ages and all shapes. Women who buy my jewelry have an intellectual draw to my work as well as a visual one.

Name some people you admire.

I admire so many people who have made their personal passion their business. I have a huge admiration for entrepreneurs in all professional fields, in a world that seems dauntingly oversaturated I respect those who bring new ideas or refurbish old ones into their own vision and share it with the world. One of the fashion designers I most admire is Manish Aurora, who’s colorful and outlandish inventions in fashion have been hard earned and uncompromisingly original.

Do you have a favorite place in your studio?

Everywhere in my studio is my favorite place. No matter where I look, I find something I forgot I had, so there is always an element of surprise within a seemingly controlled environment.

Do you have a favorite tool?

My favorite tool is a whole punch that punctures metal and allows something otherwise solid to be hinged to other objects. They always break. I am constantly testing the limits of their strength, but I always have one handy.

Do you have a favorite color?

As a painter, I love all the colors, as a jewelry designer I definitely favor the richer jewel tones and colors that occur in nature like Smokey Quartz and Oxidized Ocher tones.

Do you listen to a particular music while in your work place?

I listen to every kind of music while I work, form Hip-hop to rock-a-Billie, classic rock to classical and reggae, I love songs that tell a story, I am always tuned into lyrics and the stories that are told through song.

Are drop-ins welcome?

No, Drop-ins are not my favorite, but they are inevitable. In fashion media everyday poses as a fashion emergency, so I embrace it as much as necessary.

Do you have rules in your workplace?

Of course I have rules in my workplace. I believe in mutual respect between people who work together, but the main aesthetic rule is that it has to be beautiful, luckily beauty can be translated through the very flashy and optimistic to the dark and macabre, but it has to be beautiful.

What was your most challenging project?

Every collaboration or commission is a challenge because you have to consider someone else’s aesthetics into what otherwise would be a natural personal expression.

What places on earth call to you?

Ibiza and Texas, Tuscany and Outer space.

Is there a particular fragrance that you love?

I have worn Comme Des Garcons Insense fragrances since they debuted, I have two favorites that I always wear. I love how they smell when I spray them and they compliment my pheromones because I am always getting marriage proposals prompted by my scent.

In a fire, what would you grab to save?

Considering everything in this scenario is inanimate, everything I love is inflammable.

What do you to do to relax?

Draw.

What has been your favorite project to date?

My favorite project to date is always the one I am currently engaged in. Now I am working on a collection of lighting designs with Avrett Designs, from Charleston South Carolina. It is a marriage of my early expressions in lighting and my experience in designing jewelry.

If you had to change careers what would you do?

I hate to say it but I would be a banker or trader and use money earned to invest in my hobby of making art.

When you first came to town …Who did you work for or with?

I never was formally employed when I first came to New York. I went to countless interviews for design jobs and gallery jobs but never got hired anywhere. I was making t-shirts at the time and through a stroke of good luck and a passerby with a good eye I had the opportunity to outfit Sting for his Super bowl XXVII half-time performance. That was a great start and a total confidence builder that I just might be able to manage on my own.

Do you have a good luck charm or talisman?

I don’t consider myself a sentimental or superstitious person, that being said I do consider myself a very lucky person but it has not come from a talisman or object.