Sarah McLellan and Kristina Ortega have discovered a whole new form of artistic jewelry. In Autumn of 2007, these two pre-med students decided to change majors and go into design. Inspired by their science backgrounds and knowledge of organic chemistry, but driven by their love for fashion, (and Bill Nye the Science Guy.) they started Mctega. What makes Mctega’s pieces so aesthetically exciting are the contrasts found in them. No two are alike and all of them are absolutely exquisite.
Mctega’s collection looks like beautiful disorder. Consisting of shapeless geometric chunks of crystal, gold, copper foil and toy animals, every single one is chaotically put together with the greatest of care and dexterity. Each piece of jewelry is hand-made and unique right down to the materials used; polypropylene, polyester resin and injection molding among other things. The best part: With a price tag of $100 - $325, Mctega allows any fashion-privy chick to order a custom piece without completely breaking the bank.
These two friends decided to start creating jewelry because it presented a new challenge. They are quite the duo; always pushing each other and encouraging each other to take risks and try new things in their art. McLellan and Ortega say that they love coming up with ideas and then trying to figure out how to make those ideas come to life in a piece of jewelry. “It’s a lot more research and trial and error then we thought it would be, but the best thing we allow ourselves to do is make mistakes. They have lent themselves to some of our best pieces.”
The Los Angeles based Mctega-girls have also been thinking about creating a clothing line. It’s not clear when they will be able to start working on it. However, the creation of a clothing line has been one of their goals since Mctega’s inception. “We thought it was much more manageable to work with jewelry first.” The girls say. Right now, they are both working full time jobs to support their artistic-genius alter-egos. But, they say they can’t wait until they can work on their Mctega projects full-time.
Mctega was recently made the cover of Nylon Magazine. You can find more about these intelligent designs on their website at Mctega.com or at Mctega’s MySpace.
