STORY
Emiko Miyazawa was born into a family of creatives, including her great grandmother who crafted Japanese dolls, a kabuki dancer aunt, and her traditional sushi chef father.
Born in Japan and raised in Los Angeles, Miyazawa grew up immersed in two polar opposite cultures, and struggled to meld American life with expectations from a traditional Japanese family. She came to appreciate and embrace both extremities and it has influenced her creativity aesthetically and conceptually. Her move to Honolulu 10 years ago has helped her combine both influences into the work as well as birthing her jewelry brand M33MS in 2013.
Her professional career took root in 2003 as a design and production assistant for an L.A based jewelry designer, exhibiting at Jewelers Association shows in New York City. Miyazawa is a self taught designer, and a Graduate Gemologist from the Gemological Institute of America. Miyazawa also worked for Patek Philippe, where she acquired an affinity for timepieces and the intricacies of their mechanical movements, a recurring kinetic theme which could be seen in her designs today.
Miyazawa approaches each piece as a wearable piece of art. The meshing of Japanese and American cultures is a constant influence, seen in M33Ms’s juxtaposition of clean lines using elegant restraint with a sense of boldness and edge.
“I enjoy making simple pieces so it is timeless and versatile to any age and style. In addition to the visual experience, I add kinetic features to allow a wearable experience. Whether the emotion it evokes is surprise, nostalgia, or love, I create works in hopes that it is a portal for a connection to the things that can only be felt with the heart.”
M33Ms work reflects Miyazawa’s penchant for melding creativity with functionality. From a distance, her designs are deceptively simple. Up close, their versatility is revealed in wearer-friendly details, such as length-adjustable chains, and clever movable elements meant to delight and surprise. Pieces that appear solid, split apart to reveal hidden gems and moveable parts that can be worn a multitude of ways.
Currently Emiko Miyazawa works out of her atelier and store front, MISÉ in Moiliili.
LOGO
The M33Ms logo symbolizes “balance” and was inspired by the swinging and stopping motion of a grandfather clock’s pendulum, which only ticks when the clock is perfectly balanced.